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Valentine's Day...

Lyger

Entry posted by Lyger

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So, Valentine's Day.

 

What does that have to do with a martyr dying?

 

I mean, I understand the history of the holiday, after Claudius put Valentine to death some guy was like "I will be as devoted to you as Valentine was to God" or something along those lines, and poof, we get St. Valentine's Day.

 

But honestly, Hallmark (the term essentially standing place for all holiday-oriented companies of the like) just took it and ran with it. Where did all those poofy red hearts come from? And Cupid, I mean, he's a ROMAN god, nothing to do with a Christian St. Valentine.

 

And DIAMONDS. You know what? The rarity of diamonds is diddly-squat compared to that of other gems such as rubies. De Beers just had a very good advertising campaign and a near-monopoly.

 

I guess it's just a part of the culture now. Sure, it wasn't what it was. But neither are many other things, the English language for one thing. Like, people used to write "do" as "doe." It's like saying "Female deer you have the time of day?" And probably "to" as "toe," too.

 

I'm going digit of the foot female deer my SAT II practice now.

 

IPB Image

 

AND DON'T ACCUSE ME OF POSTING THIS ENTRY JUST 'CUZ I'M SINGLE.

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13 Comments

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GMan
It's just sad... Goodness knows how it happened... It's just shameful and disgusting. I think all the jewlers, card makers, candy makers and all are in a secret alliance, creating commercial monopoly over the holidays, distorting everything slowly into a warped and superficial world.
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Lyger

Its worth the candy ;)

:o YOU'RE ONE OF THEM!

 

You've fallen victim! You are now a corporate zombie! They say "buy," and you say "yes!"

 

FIGHT IT! FIGHT THE POWER, MAN!

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Tohunga Matoro

Its worth the candy ;)

:o YOU'RE ONE OF THEM!

 

You've fallen victim! You are now a corporate zombie! They say "buy," and you say "yes!"

 

FIGHT IT! FIGHT THE POWER, MAN!

Hey the candy is good :D Thats the whole point of today

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ToM Dracone

Cupid is a god of love, the son of Venus, goddess of love, beauty, and desire, and was said to make people fall in love. Why on Earth wouldn't he be associated with a holiday about love? :P

 

Of course, that makes the question: why isn't Venus (or Aphrodite) associated with Valentine's Day? I suppose because she represents physical more than romantic love...

 

And I believe the legend of St. Valentine is that he married young couples (the connection to love) in secret so that the man wouldn't be able to be sent off to war, as married men couldn't be sent to war. And was consequently executed for it. No idea how accurate the legend is, but that's what I've heard of it...

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Lyger

Well, yeah, I know why it came about but it's sorta a religious crossover, which is odd... I dunno.

 

I mean, the history of all that stuff does naturally make sense but the point I'm really getting at here is how over-commercialized this holiday is. Should it not be a more sentimental and thoughtful tribute to love or something? As opposed to an excuse for a date or chocolate and flowers and jewelry and greeting cards and fancy restaurants and on and on and on and on and...

 

on... and on...

 

And people would debate candy being the best part of Valentine's day... of course those would be people with significant others...

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ToM Dracone
Well, yeah, I know why it came about but it's sorta a religious crossover, which is odd... I dunno.

It's not really odd at all: a great many Christian holiday customs (in the modern world) have pagan roots. A lot of Christmas traditions come from the celebration of Yule around the same time – holly, and burning a yuletide log, for instance; Easter was originally a festival of springtime and its very name comes from a Celtic goddess of spring. Valentine's Day is just unusual in that an actual figure of mythology remained associated with it – Cupid.

 

For over-commercialization, though... It can still be very sentimental, but for those of us without significant others, the commercialization becomes a benefit of the day (I'm not going to object to free chocolate :P ), and whether we do something sentimental is up to us. I guess it's really an individual variation thing – like a lot of holidays that have become commercialized.

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Lyger

Well, yeah, I know why it came about but it's sorta a religious crossover, which is odd... I dunno.

It's not really odd at all: a great many Christian holiday customs (in the modern world) have pagan roots. A lot of Christmas traditions come from the celebration of Yule around the same time – holly, and burning a yuletide log, for instance; Easter was originally a festival of springtime and its very name comes from a Celtic goddess of spring. Valentine's Day is just unusual in that an actual figure of mythology remained associated with it – Cupid.

 

For over-commercialization, though... It can still be very sentimental, but for those of us without significant others, the commercialization becomes a benefit of the day (I'm not going to object to free chocolate :P ), and whether we do something sentimental is up to us. I guess it's really an individual variation thing – like a lot of holidays that have become commercialized.

Good point, gooooood point... I forgot about those kinds of things. Like we learned 'bout Saturnalia in Latin and how a lot of Christmas traditions came from that...

 

Yeah.

 

This is actually the first year I've heard the "Single's Day" thing, but I've heard it everywhere :P

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