Anyone who has been on social media or in the grocery store in the last few weeks will have noticed that it was valentine’s day. Whether it’s preparations, gift shopping or unrealistic couple goal reels on Instagram and TikTok or pink, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and balloons with love messages in every store. It’s all about ideals of how the day should go for couples and, of course, how much money your partner spends on you. The big question for St. Valentine: What cheesy saying should be on the card? What breakfast should she be woken up with in the morning? And what new underwear would he like? On St. Valentine’s Day particularly, the classic gender division, which is otherwise only so present in the children’s aisle, is once again very topical.
While the rest of the year is also given over to reels with the message that you can also be happily single and that the heterosexual couple model is not necessarily required to have a fulfilled life, singles are made to feel that they would be missing something without a partner on Valentine’s Day. But the weeks around Valentine’s Day are all about the fact that the one thing that can make you fundamentally happy is a relationship.
You could argue that you could use a little romance and time together right now. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with romance. But why does it have to be exactly this day when everything is so much more expensive and commercialized? If you would ask people why exactly we celebrate Valentine’s Day on this day and what exactly St. Valentine did, they probably wouldn’t be able to give you a sensible answer. So, we’re spending money on a day when we don’t even know exactly why we’re celebrating.
In addition, “The Day of Love” can also quickly cause a relationship crisis. The wrong gift, for example, can quickly spoil the romantic mood. Everyone’s expectations of the holiday are different. While one partner imagines a romantic dinner in a fine restaurant, the other half might want to spend the evening in sweatpants on the couch. After all, the best communication on Valentine’s Day doesn’t happen on its own.
It is very important to give attention and affection to the people you love. But all year round and not just on one day.
Why do we set the standards so high for this one day and so low for the rest of the year? We should start giving the
relationships we have, whether with parents, partners or friends, a little more time and attention throughout the year and maybe we can even neglect Valentine’s Day a little. You don’t have to give it up and treat it like any other day, but you do need to cut back a little on what we buy and our ideas of what the day should be like. Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much money you’ve spent on one person or how many presents you’ve given them. What counts is that you have thought about your loved one and shown how important they are to you. All year round and not just on one day.
