Valentine's Day

I watch a lot of TV, including Cougar Town (which is my guilty pleasure show), 30 Rock (which I genuinely love), and Community. All three shows recently aired episodes focusing on Valentine's Day. In Cougar Town, Jules tried to find someone to spend Valentine's Day with. In 30 Rock, Liz Lemon scheduled a root canal so she wouldn't have to deal with being single on Valentine's Day and then learned she needed to find someone to drive her home afterwards, which she couldn't do because everyone else had Valentine's Day plans. In Community, Pierce and Troy were very disappointed not to receive Valentine's Day gifts from anyone. All episodes showed how Valentine's Day can often just draw focus to the lack of love in one's life.

What does all this mean? Well, I think Valentine's Day has become way too big. It's gotten to the point where single women (and maybe even men?) feel terribly alone on Valentine's Day. People who are in relationships often make such a big deal out of it. And the media doesn't exactly help. Around Valentine's Day, advertisements for jewelry skyrocket, for example. And when you go to the grocery store, the card and balloon aisle is lined in red and pink.

Valentine's Day supposedly celebrates love, but as Mr. Sal pointed out in his blog post, it's really about romance. You never give your parents gifts on Valentine's Day, for example. It's not about parent-child love. It's about rose petals and Cupid's arrow and all that romantic gloop.

I think the supersizing of Valentine's Day is pretty much exclusively American. My mom took me on a college trip over the Valentine's Day weekend, and she and my dad both forgot about it until a few days afterwards. I'd be interested to learn how important it is in other cultures, especially non-Anglican ones.