My thought for this blog post started with my asking Linda Sherman when Valentine's day was and she responded that it meant I had not finalized my plans for my wife for Valentine's day. Now I am pretty sure I had not heard of Valentine's day before I landed one hot summer day in Dulles airport and started my life in the US 11 year ago.When I was working in the hospitality business the restaurant owners' eyes twinkled when ever "Valentine's Day" was mentioned and it was the busiest time in the year and that was my introduction to Valentine's day.
Don't draw any conclusions here but growing up in a middle-class family in India - the concept of flowers was only for marriages or other occasions. Being married I do play the dutiful Valentine savvy husband and father by taking flowers home. One time My Mom was here on Valentine's day and she was happy to get flowers at least once in her life from her son. I love the idea and I think Valentine's day keeps the economy going. In a way its exciting to have ad day about love.
According to Wikipedia "The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. The association estimates that women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.[3]
I am curious do people really spend 1.5 times their monthly salary towards a gift for their beloved every Valentine's day ( heard that on a radio station). What do the Single's do ? As I am student of the Twitter university and I asked the question what Valentine's Day meant to people during my daily evening class .
Responses from my Twitter University Faculty:
Karylan : It means showing your loved one how much they mean to you.
Jestutripup please enjoy being married with kids. that's a psyche swim. celebrate loving every human every day where ever we are on earth.
Jonforeman Valentine's day means I better buy a gift for my girlfriend and arrange something special or else I'll be in the doghouse. :-)
conniereece For Valentine's Mom always writes original poems for my sister & me; she bakes a heart-shaped red velvet cake. Very loving family.
FreshPeel Valentines Day is outrageously high priced flowers, crowded restaurants and many other ways to celebrate besides the later.
BlondeByDesign re: What does Valentines mean 2 U.. It's a day of fun, giving & receiving of love. Not nec. just about couples. About LOVE
kfarwell - Valentines Day has always felt very sweet to me - flowers, candy, cards, giggling. Nothing overly deep and meaningful.
edwardharran V:Day: A History: Greek mythology to Christian tradition to Hallmark commercialism
Digidave a forced date
Now what happens to Singles ? In a previous Blog post on Singelringen I took the help of
Linda Sherman who is Singelringen agent for North America to understand the concept. So I asked her "Do people give Singelringen for Valentine's Day & to whom and she said " YES! To themselves, single friends/relatives"
She sent me the Singelringen's take on Valentine's Day:
Singles have attractive options on February 14th.
They can join in the sixth annual celebration of IQD, International Quirky Alone Day. Founder Sasha Cagen has posted a list of 10 recommended activities for IQD at QuirkyAlone.net. One of them is: “Get yourself a lovely aqua Singelringen as a visible reminder that you're complete whether you're in a relationship or not.”
I will be giving the ladies in my life flowers and will wait and watch on Twitter to see what everyone else is giving to get some ideas. I did hear someone say they are getting a WiFi booster ;) But I may be wrong. If you care to comment on what Valentine's Day means to you please do and I will be eagerly awaiting your opinion.
Thanks.
