Valentine's Day

Well, Valentine's day is tomorrow, and since I live in a dominant Mormon community, the town is celebrating it today basically. Everywhere I go there's an assult on my senses: the smell of roses, the sight of blinding red and pink, the sound of cooing lovers, the taste of all the raging hormones in the air (okay, that sounds a little gross), and the bitter touch of winter. Usually, people who do not have a significant other call this holiday S.A.D. or "Single's Awareness Day" which is completely true, but this year I feel humiliated for those celebrating Valentine's Day at all!
I walked into Walmart the other day and saw the huge isle of stuffed animals, cellophane-wrapped chocolate boxes, and cards decked out in pink and red. I expected to feel the sting of being without a significant other, but instead...I laughed! I laughed right out loud in front of the entire store, especially upon approaching the isle that I found was swarmed with anxious and stressed out men holding all sorts of stuffed animals exclaiming "I WUV YOU" with a heart in between it's paws in one hand, and a huge red cellophane wrapped candybox in the other. It's truely hilarious; we have these high expectations for a ridiculous holiday from the time we are very young. Starting in kindergarden, there are huge parties in class with handmade boxes for those boxed, blanket valentines that our parent's helped us fill out for everyone in the class. As we get older (and by older, I mean grade school, middle school) we long for someone to share the holiday with; a secret admirer, a 'boyfriend/girlfriend' or any other romantic fantasy we conjure up in our heads. The men are especially pressured to spoil the women with jewelery, chocolate, or the ever so notorious dozen red roses.
I want it to be understood that I've had plenty of Valentine's Days with a significant other and they were great, but now it feels a little juevenille to me...and because I do not what to come across as a bitter single woman saying ignorantly "It's a Hallmark Holiday, it's totally made up", I looked up where and why and how Valentine's Day actually started. Here is what I found:

*the holiday was named after one or more Christian martyrs named Valentine and established by a Pope in the year 496.
* became associated with romantic love in the High Middle Ages when courtly love was popular (hey, I'm studying courtly love in my French Lit/History class!)
*Valentine cards became popular in the 19th Century
*Men spend twice as much money for Valentine's Day than women do
*Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni are the "Saint Valentine's" of Valentine's Day. Valentine of Rome was a priest martyred in 269 and Valentine of Terni was a bishop.
*No romantic elements have been discovered being linked to these martyrs. When romance became linked into it in the 14th Century, the distinction between the two valentines were lost.
*According to some sources, on of the St. Valentines was persecuted by Roman Emperor Claudius II. Claudius attempted to get Valentine to convert to paganism in order to save his own life. In turn, Valentine tried to convert Claudius to Christianity.
*Claudius II wanted men to remain single so they could build up the army; married men did not make good soldiers. The priest Valentine therefore conducted secret marriages. When Claudius found out about this, he threw Valentine in jail. The night before his execution he wrote the first "valentine" to the daughter of the jailer who he had befriended and signed it "from your Valentine"

All very interesting. I think the reason I don't care for it anymore is the expectations that we set on each other for this one day. If someone doesn't go all out on Valentine's day, all hell breaks loose with some people. It's okay to have a tradition with your significant other, but if you're stressing about it, you probably shouldn't even bother. That's my opinion. And that's what this blog is for....writing my opinion haha.