Formerly SpringBlog

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Valentine's Day: The Holiday Behind the Story

As you have probably already read on this blog, eheintz56 has posted about Valentine's Day. They gave the background behind the origin of the holiday and its history. I plan to give you information on the way we celebrate Valentine's Day and what it means to certain people.

Love. The Merriam-Webster dictionary says that "love" is a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties. This being the very first definition for "love", I think, is put first for a reason. Now, it is true that you love your family or some of your friends, but when talking about a significant other, I believe that this is directed towards the way women feel about men. Women are more about the affection that they feel for a man. They generally think about being with a man and talking about things. They want to spend a lot of time and be romantic. This definition of the word "love" is the woman's version.

The second definition that the Merriam-Webster dictionary gives for the word "love" is attraction based on sexual desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers. I want to start by saying that not all men, or women for that matter, feel that this is the case, and it is true that not all men are like this, but in a general sense, this definition describes the way most men feel about "love". For all the guys out there, here is a question: "What is the first thing that attracts you to a woman?" Don't even try and say, "their personality" because we all know that that is not the first thing that you notice. Most guys might say their beauty, which in turn makes them think about the woman's body, which in turn, makes them think about . . . sex. It has been said that men think about sex, (consciously or unconsciously) once every 7 seconds. Now whether this is true or not is for you to decide. But either way, men do think about sex. I guess the point is that men and women may feel a bit differently about this holiday and what one may be expecting, the other may not be thinking about at all.

On Valentine's Day, we spend money on cards, candy, and other things that will hopefully make our significant other happy. To these people, Valentine's Day is usually a great day, filled with love and enjoyment. But what about those people who don't have a significant other. Well, this day is typically the worst day of the year. People who do not have a person to celebrate this day with usually directs hate towards this holiday. How many of you that have Facebook saw, or posted yourself, posts about how this is a pointless holiday and that it is a waste of money? Now how many of those people do not have a person to celebrate the holiday? I have rarely seen an instance where people with a significant other talk about how pointless and sad this holiday is.

So whether you are happily married, happily together with someone, or happily single, Valentine's Day is a holiday that everyone celebrates, either by buying items for the other person, or telling others how stupid the holiday is. Everyone is a partaker of this holiday and Valentine's Day will forever be the holiday of "love".

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