Letter To Editor: Against Valentines
August Haase
Guest Writer
Valentine’s Day is a joke. I don’t blame those who celebrate it, after all 63% of us do; it’s not their fault they’ve been tricked. Laced in conformity, glittered with materialism, and gushing of expectations, this holiday has long been an outlet for us to ‘express love’ by buying things rather than expressing emotion. The problem is, we’ve come to accept these material gifts as sufficient substitute for adequate appreciation. Don’t get me wrong, gifts can be ineffably sweet and I love impressing my girl just as much as the next guy, but this false Hallmark-holiday just isn’t the right way to do it. This February it’s estimated that the US will spend between $18 and $36 billion on manufactured appreciations such as valentines, flowers, candy, and/or jewelry. Please understand in the midst of this that I’m all for these gifts and expressions of love. Just not when they’re the result of expectation, especially in such vast, wasteful quantity. Did you know that it’s estimated an average of 141 million Valentine’s Day cards are gifted annually (not including boxed, children’s valentines) making V-Day the second largest card giving holiday, second only to, you guessed it, Christmas. America has an impressive sweet tooth this year too, with nearly $707 million spent on candy, equalling a whopping 127 million pounds, or the approximate weight of six Eiffel Towers. Valentine’s day rose sales are equally ridiculous, sitting at a striking 233 million all for one day of the year, especially when roses nearly double if not triple in price around the holiday. It’s almost painful how wasteful we are on Valentine’s day seeing that all of these 233 million roses will die soon after the holiday, and most of those 141 million valentines will soon find their way into our landfills. The joy it brings approximately half the population that celebrates Valentine’s day is something to be proud of, but all I’m saying is that rather than wasting money and resources, setting expectations, and expressing love materially on one day of the year, we should be letting our loved ones know daily through small, meaningful, personal, sincere tokens of appreciation. It’s up to you to decide how to do that, but if you love them shouldn’t it be anyway?
