You know what I’m about to say, don’t cha?

Yup. Valentine’s Day also fell to the victim of commercialization of holidays. People spend money and efforts on making this one day special for their significant others. Couples get engaged on this day more than any other holidays. Secret admirers pop out of nowhere to show their affections. Kids at school give their friends valentines—tiny Valentine’s Day cards. Price for roses and other flowers double, and nobody seems to care. As much as the holiday has been commercialized since the days of its origin, love is still the bottom line.

There is no clear explanation as to how Valentine’s Day came about. It is believed that it was all started back in the days of the Roman Empire. Emperor Claudius II of Rome figured that single men made better soldiers so he prohibited marriage. A priest named Valentine (or Valentinus) defied this by secretly performing marriages for young lovers in secret. Claudius found out, and ordered his execution. According to one legend, while in prison, Valentine fell in love with the jailor’s daughter. He allegedly wrote her a letter which was signed “From your Valentine” before his death. Since then, Valentine became a Patron Saint of an annual festival. The festival involved young Romans offering women they admired, and wished to court, handwritten greetings of affection on February 14.

Another festival that took place in February is Lupercalia, a fertility festival. The selected men then walked around the city, sprinkle crops and women with the sacrificial blood to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, the women would place their names in a big urn. The bachelors would pick a name out, and paired with the woman for a year. Many of these matches ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine’s Day around 498 A.D., and banned the lottery matching. Over in England ad France, it was the beginning of mating season for birds—just another reason to make it the day of romance! By the 18th Century, it was common for friends and lovers to exchange tokens of affection or notes on this day. Then came the printed cards. In the 1840s, Americans were introduced to the mass-produced valentines. Now, it is estimated that one billion valentines are sent each year.

And that’s when we stop to think about the true meaning of Valentine’s Day. Is it all about cards and gifts nowadays? There are 365 days in a year, and why would you pick only one day to do something specials for your loved ones? What would St. Valentine think about us? CNN reported of a survey conducted by Boston University back in 1998 on what college students think about Valentine’s Day. The majority of them consider Valentine’s Day overly commercialized, overrated, and less romantic. They reject the idea of commercialism and materialism. There are some who believe that romance is not dead, it just evolves into something more creative. Another bunch are just too tired to have a relationship after long days of school.

We were all so young and idealistic our freshman year. My suitemate Paula and I protested Valentine’s Day by wearing all black. We were protesting the commercialization of romance. We were protesting the nonsense of one designated day to love. We were protesting the colors of pink and red…

*Sigh* All right. You got me. We weren’t thinking about all that. What we were really protesting was couple-hood and our miserable lives because the boy Paula had a crush on kept toying with her, and the boy that I had a crush on turned out to have girlfriend. We were just a couple of bitter and angry kids on a big lonely campus. As we sought refuge in our dorm room at the end of day, we found a surprise. A vase of roses and a bunch of balloons were waiting for us. The card indicated that our suitemates want us to be their Valentines! Their efforts were enough for us to get out of our black clothes and back to our usual selves. The suite full of single college girls spent that evening in front of TV, pigging out, and watching Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall one more time. The boys who broke our hearts were completely forgotten about, and Cupid’s pink world was left far behind. Love of our friends conquers all.

Valentine’s Day was the story of the fight for the right to love, and that love will prevail. Are we living up to St. Valentine’s sacrifice, or has love become something people take for granted? Is the love for friends and families forsaken? Recent U.S. divorce and unwanted pregnancy rate, and many other statistics have given me another perspective about all this Valentine’s Day business. A lot of people still take love very lightly. They get married because it made them happy, and when it all went south, then you got divorced. Or they were blinded by passion or illusions of love, and made careless mistakes. Then again, who am I to tell you about love? After all, no one can truly understand love.

And all this talk about love makes me want chocolate. Hmmm. I wonder if my Valentine would like some too...

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