I've been thinking lately about Valentimes day and how I feel about it. Going back to the origins of the holiday, St. Valentine was flayed, okay so according to wikipedia there were several St. Valentine's who were martyred, at any rate, there was a St. Valentine who was thrown in jail and later executed for marrying young men who were supposed to remain single. I suppose this is where the western romantic take on the day springs from.
More recently there was the Valentine's day massacre. On Valentine's day 1929, Al Capone rubbed out about 7 people, this story factors into the plot of the movie Some Like It Hot, it's not Capone in the movie, but the essentials are there. I watched this movie last night with my brother to commemorate the massacre, it's a very funny movie.
One also hears of "single's awareness day" or "anti valentines day," mostly instigated by people feeling fairly lonely, sad and/or bitter. These days, well personally I was over the whole idea after high school. It just makes people miserable. I don't really love the idea of the traditional valentine's day either, it's gotten to be a holiday where after elementary school, most people love it or hate it with little in the middle. My freshmen year one of my next door neighbors introduced me, and the rest of the floor, to the idea of "Love week" a week long celebration of love and all the trappings that go along with valentines; however love week isn't really a celebration of couples, it's more a celebration of love, friends, romance, whatever... I've sort of adopted that idea, that we should be celebrating love in all it's many facets, because in the very famous words of John Lennon: "all you need is love" and it's absolutely true, it doesn't have to be a significant other's love, but we all need to be loved, and I think most people are loved, I should very much hope so any way.
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