Why Do We Have Valentine's Day When You Can Show Love Every Day?

 

It might surprise you to know that in the past 10 years, the number of Americans who say they plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day in some way has fallen from 63% to 53% (with an even lower dip to 51% in 2019).

Does this mean fewer people are interested in demonstrating love and affection for their partners? Could it be a sign that people are becoming less enamored with a holiday that many think is too centred around spending money? Maybe singletons are swaying the tide, with Valentine’s Day accentuating their loneliness. We think there could be another reason. Perhaps people are simply shirking the idea of there being only one day a year dedicated to romance. After all, you shouldn’t need a reason to tell someone you love them. 

There are many ways to show your love

Of course, being able to tell someone you love them doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Maybe you’re not good with expressing your feelings with words, or maybe you’re someone who likes to keep their emotions close to their chest. You might even be in a relationship where those three particular words have yet to be said. 

This is where romantic gestures come in. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a beautiful bouquet of romantic flowers and a plush teddy bear worth? We give gifts when words are not enough, and gifts can be anything from material goods to time spent together. Are you one of the people who find it easier to channel their love into a gesture or present? Maybe you struggle with original gift ideas, and Valentine’s Day provides you with clear options.

Here are some of the classic Valentine’s Day gifts, and how they came to hold such significance.

Chocolates

While still falling short of Halloween and Christmas, February is still a busy time of year for chocolatiers. Why? Chocolate is commonly regarded as a mood-booster, and sometimes an aphrodisiac, due to the chemicals released in the brain when it is eaten. Combine this with the fact that the most common time of day to eat chocolate is after 8pm, and you can begin to connect the dots.

Flowers

Symbolic of fertility and marriage, flowers have been used in courtship, romantic poetry, literature, and even legends for thousands of years. There are lots of flowers that mean love, but none is quite as iconic as the red rose. They have associations with the Greek goddess Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, and appear in her legends.

Dining out

It wasn’t until the second half of the 20th century that Valentine’s Day dinners became the intimate candlelit affairs that we’re familiar with today. This was thanks to the restaurant industry boom of the 70s. In the 1920’s it was still considered disreputable for even engaged couples to dine out alone together in the evenings, let alone sweethearts yet to be betrothed. Now, second only to Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year to dine out.

Valentine’s Day origins aren’t quite set in love

There’s lots of debate over the exact origins of Valentine’s Day in its earliest form, but none of the stories surrounding it are what we could call romantic by modern standards. A pagan holiday from the time of the ancient Romans, Lupercalia, was celebrated by Luperci (priests) on February 15th as a fertility rite. Animals were sacrificed, men were anointed with the blood, and women were whipped with strips of leather that were supposed to render them fertile. Not many people’s idea of a dream date (though we can’t speak for everyone). 

Another potential origin was the martyrdom of St. Valentine of Rome - though out of thousands of saints there are more than a few Valentines to choose from. The St. Valentine whose feast day is February 14th is the patron saint of “lovers, epileptics, and beekeepers”, and was said to have cured a girl’s blindness and in doing so converted her and her family. Writing a letter to the girl from jail before his execution, he apparently signed it “your Valentine”.

Neither of these stories conjures the image of heart-shaped balloons and boxes of chocolates, and even the first recorded Valentine’s Day card was written by the imprisoned Duke of Orléans to his wife from the Tower of London. Thankfully Valentine’s Day cards these days tend to have much lower stakes. 

Imagine a world where love was the order of the day, every day

We like to believe that the statistical drop in Valentine’s Day celebrations really is down to people being freer with their affection, at all times of the year. After all, spontaneity keeps relationships exciting, and an unexpected romantic gift will always make a bigger impact than one given on a designated gift-giving day. Giving gifts - be they items, experiences or ornaments - strengthens bonds, and spending money on other people is proven to make you happy. Maybe this is why the average American spent roughly $165 on Valentine’s Day last year.

And there’s no need to think only of romance when wanting to show people how much you love them. Friends and family will appreciate tokens of affection in any form, be it a bouquet of thinking of you flowers, to getting the bill when you go for coffee.

If you’re looking for a way to spread some love across the whole year, why not opt for a flower subscription, as well as the traditional romantic delights? Order flowers from French Florist by 2pm for same-day local delivery across Los Angeles.