Valentine's Day comes around only once a year on February 14th. It's a day where we take some extra time and show that special person in our lives just how much they mean to us.
The 'idea' that Valentine's Day was a special day for lovers has evolved since the first reference ever written was in a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer around 1381 in "Parlement of Foules" where he wrote that on February 14, birds began to pair. I believe that the significance behind this was the idea that the birds were pairing up with their special counterpart for mating purposes.
There are many legends about Valentine's Day and its beginnings. One such legend began with St. Valentine, a person who has since been martyred in the Catholic Church. This particular legend begins during the third century in Rome where Valentine was a priest. The emperor was Claudius II at the time and outlawed all marriages on the premise that single men made better soldiers because they had no families to think about while doing battle. But Valentine continued to perform marriages in secret and defied Claudius. Soon Claudius found out and demanded that Valentine be sent to his death. But his legend lived on in the lives of those he married. There are many legends about Valentine, but whether or not any of these legends are true remain to be seen since they are so obscure and cannot be verified.
Thousands of stories and poems have been about love. Love is the glue which binds us together. One very basic need for our existence is wanting to be loved, to be remembered by our loved ones, and to make the ones we love feel special. It's only human and is within each one of us and always will be until the end of time. Sometimes in our busy daily lives, we forget this very basic need and take advantage of those that we deem to be special. Perhaps we're rude or make hurtful comments, or perhaps we don't show our appreciation as much as we'd like. Valentine's Day can erase some of that by taking the time out of our busy lives and remember to say "I love you" to those we love.
In our commercial world today, Valentine's Day is a big money-making opportunity for various businesses that throw endless amounts of propaganda at us in the hopes that we'll "prove" to our loved ones just how much we love them by making purchases. It doesn't have to be that way and it shouldn't be designed that way. We shouldn't feel compelled to buy an expensive gift or even a Valentine's Day card to show our love, but by saying a simple "I love you" and meaning it, will have more impact and significance than anything else in the world.
Have you said "I love you" to your special someone yet?
