Here’s Why Valentine’s Day Is The Biggest Scam Of Our Time

Opinion: There's no lovey-dovey backstory about the day!

Here’s Why Valentine’s Day Is The Biggest Scam Of Our Time

Flowers, Teddy Bears, Candy and gifts are excessively getting exchanged between lovebirds across the country and around the world today, all in the name of St. Valentine.  It’s the one day of the year when people show their affection for one another with messages of love. But, do people really understand the origins and ideas behind this festival of candy and cupids?  Is Valentine’s Day not one of the biggest scam of our time?

Read On To Find Out The Truth About Valentine’s day

The origins of this day are actually muddled, dark and not so related to what it is being perceived today. Nobody really knows how Valentine’s Day began. Even historians find themselves arguing over the exact traditions from which the present-day holiday takes inspiration.

Depending on your sources, the history of Valentine’s Day can be traced back to an ancient Roman fertility festival involving sacrificial goats or a Catholic saint, Valentine, who was thrown in jail and sentenced to death for going against Emperor Claudius II orders banning marriage. It’s also thought that as part of a Roman tradition, on such a day boys drew names of girls from a box. They’d be boyfriend and girlfriend during the festival and sometimes they’d get married.

While there are so many stories and mixed feelings about the day; so the celebrations of Valentine’s Day goes on, in varied ways.  Consequently, so many hearts will be broken on the day. Many will break the bank buying jewellery, Teddy Bears and flowers for their loved ones. While others will celebrate in a SAD way (that’s Single Awareness Day), dining alone and binging on self-gifted chocolates.

Is it really a festival of love as it is popularly believed? Or one of the biggest scams of our time? Here’s a bouquet of perspectives to help you figure out your feelings about the tradition.

• Valentine’s Day is primarily a capitalist construct. Today, the holiday is big business: According to market research firm IBIS World, Valentine’s Day sales reached $17.6 billion last year; this year’s sales are expected to total $18.6 billion.
• Men are always expected to buy presents
• The social pressure of buying gifts for loved ones exerts pressure on people to go broke or go beyond their budget
• Valentine’s Day perpetuates a tyrannical fantasy of what love should look like

The components of a baseline Valentine’s Day experience, like flowers, chocolates, a pink card and maybe dinner out would all be more meaningful if they happened any other time of year rather than be culturally mandated: people should give their partners gifts or take them out to dinner because they genuinely want to, not because a holiday tells them they should

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