U.S consumers spent over $17.3 BILLION dollars yesterday, with over a third of this cost going to flowers. Maybe I am different than the rest of the girls in the world, but I would much rather have a nice homemade candlelit dinner with my hubby than spend $100 on a prix fixe dinner and $70 on a dozen long stemmed roses. All of this for what? To tell your significant other that you love them? I think you should tell your loved one that you love them everyday, not only on an overly commercialized holiday. Not only are you spending money to tell someone you love them, but roses die in less than a week. You could buy groceries for two weeks, but instead you are buying twelve roses that have a shelf life of less than a week. I guess flowers are more important than food in this day and age.
Don't get me wrong, I like to be pampered and receive surprises from my loved one, I just think that Valentine's Day is completely overrated and unnecessary.
I definitely agree. As a kid I never understood why people said consumer holidays are dumb -- I really valued free candy, presents, etc -- and I still think they are nice and important for children to experience (maybe, I could probably convince myself that kids don't need them either), but adults who buy into all that crap are dumb. On Valentine's Day we spend money to show people we love them, Halloween we buy candy because it'd what we've been conditioned to think is normal, Easter/Christmas/ Hanukkah are supposedly a religious holidays but we still give each other gifts. I think Holidays are important for showing the people who matter in your life that they are important to you, but you don't need to do that with gifts, or cards. chocolates, or flowers.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Valentine's day is completely overrated. People should treat each other well every day, not because they have to but because they want to. Sure, Valentine's Day is good in that it is a day where you make your love completely clear, but hopefully that other person already knows that you love them and does not need ridiculous frills from you in order to appreciate or acknowledge that love. I think that Valentine's Day should not be as big of a deal as it is. It should not be about show and presents, etc. but rather about you and that other person doing whatever you want for a day, and I do not know why that has to include buying a large, fluffy white bear and red roses like every other couple in the US. That is lame and boring and a waste of a day together, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI COMPLETELY agree. My animosity towards this day may stem from a recent breakup, but still. I think that the societal transition that has resulted in the colossal exaggeration of such events stems from the lack of such gestures on any other given occasion. In a world where digital media makes a wall post the equivalent of last century's love letter makes the expression of love much harder to convey with meaning. This void has accumulated in pressure on occasions like valentines day and anniversaries. Events that used to warrant no more than a picnic now call for unjustifiable expenditures. We have a percentage of income that must be invested in an engagement ring. Is the cost of valentines day destined to have a similar formulaic requirement?
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