Do you hate the consumerism of Valentine’s Day? You’re certainly not the first. The lovelorn have been trashing the pseudo-holiday since the 1800s.
In 1847, the New York Daily Tribune ran an op-ed bemoaning the rampant materialism of Valentine's Day, Time reported. “There was a time when Valentine’s Day meant something. Then it was a business of real lovers and there was sweetness under its delicate shy disguise,” ]an excerpt from the Daily Tribune op-ed reads. “We hate this modern degeneracy, this miscellaneous and business fashion. Send a Valentine by the penny post too? Bah!”
If the backlash against this polarizing holiday can be traced to the 1840s, then the commercialism obviously dates back much further ー despite the fact that Hallmark, originally Hall Brothers, wasn’t founded until about 1910.
Even still, the National Retail Federation estimates U.S. lovers will spend an estimated $20.7 billion this year on tokens of their affection.
So was there ever a time when the holiday was only about love?
The exact origins of Valentine’s Day and its saccharine, often expensive, traditions are unknown. According to Smithsonian Magazine, some link it to an ancient Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia, in which women were struck by the severed skins of sacrificial goats. Others point to the lives of as many as three Catholic martyrs ー each with their own uniquely gruesome ends. It was likely a combination of these and other events that eventually birthed the modern holiday.
Only much later did connections between love and Valentine's Day emerge. The French Duke of Orleans sent the first known valentine to his wife in early 1415 while imprisoned in the Tower of London. He refers to her as his "très douce Valentinée," or his very gentle Valentine. In 1603, Ophelia first declares herself Hamlet's valentine in Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Sometime in that 200-year interlude, the writing of love notes became tied to the season and by the early 19th century, it was a full-blown industry.
Love it or loathe it, the tradition of Valentine's Day runs deep in western culture. And today, being a Valentine's Day hater offers its own opportunities to spend money.
With no shortage of anti-Valentine’s Day pop-up bars, parties and swag, lovebirds and lonely hearts alike can mark the day of love with a celebration of consumerism.
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