Valentines Day is the same as every other day. People die, people are born. People cry, people laugh. People masturbate, people have sex. People kill others and people are killed by others. All the while there is war, torture, abuse, rape, hatred, and of course love.

But why is it that we focus on the latter? Is it because they’d rather choose to forget about how horrible life can and inevitably will be? Is it because the feeling of need is stronger than any other day of the year? Is it because this day is just a day where people feel more obliged to show affection due to the marketing of the day? Or is it just because we are told to be romantic on this day? My answer? All of the above, in result of the latter.

We’ve all been told in our Westernised global culture that February 14 is the day we show our love. But does anybody know why? Does anybody even call it St. Valentines anymore? These questions are what are wrong with this day.

The day is clouded in mystery, celebrating fictional traditions and a man whom nobody knows. Even the Catholic church don’t know why St. Valentine is a Saint.

So why do we choose to celebrate a day for all the wrong reasons? It might be the same as Christmas, Birthdays or Easter. Because we’ve all been told we need to celebrate the commercial value of said holidays. These days are all a marketer’s dream; days where splurging on unnecessary and unrelated items are at a high, because not celebrating is considered taboo, and where greed is the fuel which burns the desire for us wanting gifts, affection and belonging in a society which would rather celebrate just because they’ve been told to.

Which brings me to this; Valentine’s Day is what is wrong with society. We needn’t a day to show our love, but we choose today to show our love because everybody else is doing it. Today is a day about getting better than everybody else; A larger bear, more roses, and more extravagant chocolate.  You shouldn’t need one day a year to show your affection, flowers should be given everyday, chocolates every second, and a bear whenever you can’t be there to hug.

Just one last thing, why is there an entire day given for one emotion? If love gets a day, I believe all human emotions should get a day. A day for Hatred, a day for lust, a day for sorrow, a day for happiness, a day for fear, and a day for suspense. Sure some emotions already have their own days (Sorrow marks the day a year after a tragic event, fear a day in halloween, suspense for WWDC) but these days are all overtaken by, yup you guessed it, greed.

Happy Marketing Day,