Now, this blog. It's not written because I'm single or because I'm bitter. It is, however, written because I am both of those things!
This is going to be an attempt at a full length blog about how Valentine's day should be banned on grounds of political correctness!
According to our good friends at Wikipedia there are 14 different saints by the name of Valentine, there is very little known about the two St Valentines that are "celebrated" on the 14th February. One of them was from Rome and martyred in around AD 269. The other was from Terni and was a bishop. Both are buried on a road north of Rome. The 14th February was apparently celebrated as a saints day as early as 496AD, and it's association with love and romance in the middle ages. By the 14th Century when it was linked with love, the differentiation between the two saints was lost.
Before doing this little bit of research into Valentine's day I used to blame capitalism. I'd probably have even found a nice excuse to blame Thatcher! But I have now found that this goes deeper into history. Chaucer is to blame for the origins. There is no recorded link between Saint Valentine's day and love and romance until Chaucer wrote about it in "Parlement of Foules", which he wrote in 1382. From there it was only going to get worse!
So that's the history. The main reason that I feel Valentine's day should be banned is that it is, as the title suggests, elitist! Christmas and Easter may well be Christian holidays, but all school kids get that time off and we all feel we are allowed to eat chocolate at those times of year. Valentine's day on the other hand, excludes so many people, mainly us single people! I think we all remember the "news stories" telling us how Brits can't celebrate Christmas because it is a purely Christian event.
There are some people out there who, no doubt, are happy to be single, and some of them may even like to rebel against a couples holiday. I feel, however, that we should spare a thought for those who aren't happy about being single. Maybe some people have just lost love ones, in one way or another, and I'm sure they'll tell you that they not need a nauseating corporate event to remind them of this fact! Most of us find we can't truly ignore it too. I gave it a good effort, most of my close mates being single, and the decision to celebrate a friends birthday instead, but any trip to a supermarket was a constant reminder that you're all on your own, and any look at your Facebook reminds you that someone you didn't really talk to in school and haven't seen for years is very happy on their Valentine's date.
I actually feel that even if I was in a relationship I'd still feel the same about this! If I were to be romantic on Valentine's day (hard to imagine I know), then my girlfriend would clearly be thinking "why is he not like this all the time?" This putting pressure on myself to keep up the act! On the other hand, if I was not romantic on Valentine's day then it would put excess pressure on a relationship that has to deal with all the other modern pressures too.
To conclude I just want to quote a lyric from a Beautiful South song. "You know when romance is dead, your makeup's in a tool box somewhere in the shed."
And the joke:
"Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"Shut up you daft bugger, lay your domino."
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