I know. I know. This is the most blatantly commercial holiday. Created to sell greeting cards and candy by capitolizing on man’s insecurity and woman’s obsession with knowing what a man feels. However, I think this is the least hypocritiacl holiday we celebrate all year. We celebrate the birth of Jesus by spending ourselves deeper into debt to give stuff to other people. The resurrection of the same guy is celebrated by hunting eggs laid by a rabbit (I am still trying to work this one out). At least going into Valentine’s Day, I know that this is an invented day.

There is a history to it. There was a St. Valentine. Actually, three. None of these martyrs actually have any relationship with the Holiday itself. There is plenty of documentation that February 14th is a day Saint’s day. But once again, there is nothing to suggest that this Saint is celebrated by exchanging declarations of love. Actually, the relationship is more coincedental. It was often abserved by Chaucer and other authors that birds begin to seek mates about the same time as February 14th. Most likely embroidered by balladeers and troubadors, this holiday gets its romantic touch because of Nature’s cycle.

St. Valentine’s Day gained it’s place on the Western calendar during the Victorian period. The exchange of cards and letters became common with the development of organized mail delivery services and inexpensive print reproduction methods. It wasn’t long before cards were commercially available for any occaission. And now, in the Twenty-first century, we are sending Valentine’s Day cards via electrons.

I think this anecdoatal relation to a religious figure and the inherant commercialism of the holiday allow me to make what I wish of it. To me, a holiday to celebrate love, passion and poetry is more needed in this world than a day to celebrate dead men and mysterious rites of seasons. With this in mind, I make my own greeting cards and have for the last several years. I send them out to friends, family, and businesses that promote a positive sexual attitudes.

Celebrate the day with me. Tell me what you will do for your lover. If not for your lover, then for your fellow babies. If not for your fellow babies, then for yourself. Remember: love for the world begins with a love for the self. or Like George Carlin says, “I would rather let my kids see two people fucking, than let them watch two people kill eachother.”