BY: Isadora Nicolai
Is the 14th of February really the most romantic day of the year, or simply an overrated date to make brands profit?
The lovers’ day just happened, but the question that remains is: Shouldn’t every day be a celebration of love for those who have a special someone? Of course, it is important to have a day to symbolize love. After all, love is vital in human interaction. Not romantic love specifically; love comes in many shapes: family love, friend love, empathetic love for others, so on and so forth.
Dedicating a day for love is beautiful, but throughout the years, the day in question has become more of a reason to shop and spend money than to actually celebrate love. It is impossible to say that everyone that celebrates Valentine’s Day is doing it only to buy and receive gifts, but it is a fact that for that day everything falls into a fairytale narrative. The damaged, worn-out relationships are rekindled only for this one date on which people pretend all is fine.
Is being alone that bad? Is pretending all is fine for a night worth it? Relationships should be a constant exchange of respect, consideration and trust, and not necessarily demonstrated materialistically. Receiving gifts is always fun, but the demonstration of love should happen in daily actions and not only for those 24 hours.
Image has become so important for people, and what is displayed on social media takes so much space versus what is actually real. Everyone looks good on social platforms because what is uploaded is only what people want others to see. The social pressure of not being alone on Valentine’s Day is also a factor for why people feel the need of not being alone or feel the need of buying extravagant gifts just to post about them.
Valentine’s Day falls right behind Christmas, making this the most lucrative time of the year. It becomes a cycle— people want to show off their loved ones and gifts, and companies want to profit and sell more. What once was about love becomes about money. Don’t wait for Valentine’s Day to show your love, do it daily. Celebrate Valentine’s Day, but don’t make it about who has the most expensive gifts. Make it about celebrating the beautiful feeling that we love to call love.