by Logan Harms
Around 270 A.D. multiple random dudes shared the same name: St.Valentine. Collectively they decided that they wanted to celebrate love. Over 1700 years later Valentine’s Day has become one of the most stressful days of the year for people in and out of relationships. It’s time, to be honest: Valentine’s Day is awful!
This year the U.S. is projected to spend 26 billion dollars on Valentines Day. Here are five reasons why Valentine’s Day is a waste of time and money.
- The cost
Don’t even get me started on how much V-Day items cost. Candies, chocolates, flowers, and every pink or red item shoots up in price. Do you want to take someone out to dinner? Well, if you even get a reservation, the cost of the dinner is going to be through the roof. According to Insider, the average cost of a V-Day dinner in 2017 was $170, and gifts cost $175 every year for V-Day alone!
- It promotes breakups
Over the years the expectations for Valentine’s day have gone up and up. A study done by YouGovAmerica discovered that about 1 out of 14 adults have experienced a V-Day breakup. The expectations and stress have gotten so high that researchers found that partners in weakened relationships were “five times more likely” to break up around Valentines Day than they were during any other day of the year!
- Valentine’s is a toxic holiday
With the prevalence of social media, Valentine’s Day promotes comparing yourself to others and comparing your relationships to others. For people who aren’t in relationships, it’s a reminder that you’re alone, and for people who are in relationships, it promotes competition. People want to outdo last year; people want to outdo their friends. It turns from a day to celebrate love to a day to compete with your friends and exclude your friends who aren’t in relationships.
- Stress
Right after you get over the stress and chaos of Christmas, V-Day rolls right around. Trying to get a dinner reservation, trying to find a date, trying to create the best V-Day ever- you’re bound to stress yourself out. On Vday you’re expected to be better at everything, and trying to all get it done on time is stressful!
- We shouldn’t need a holiday to celebrate love
If you truly love someone you shouldn’t need a day to celebrate it. You should be doing fun cute things as often as you can. Celebrating love one day of the year is senseless and results in stress and debt. Do you really want to exclude your friends and stress out your significant other?
So, with all this information let’s be honest, you shouldn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, or maybe you should. Just try not to stress too much or make your single friends feel sad.
