Happy Valentine’s Day!
Feb 14th, 2008 by Bethany
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
I was talking to one of my sisters yesterday about Valentine’s Day and how some of our old roommates and single friends dislike it. They sequestered themselves miserably at home and called the holiday things like “Singles Awareness Day.” On the other hand, the girls in our family have always liked Valentines Day, single or not. We decided to attribute this attitude to two things: 1) the way our parents, especially our father, treat V-Day and 2) Sister Tippets, our Seminary Teacher.
As for the first influence, our parents always treated Valentine’s Day as a family holiday of sorts, a day to talk about how much we love each other in a way that’s a little more special than other days of the year. We would make each other Valentine’s cards from construction paper and paper doilies and glue. Our dad always got each of us a single carnation and told us he loves us. So, it was never really a romance day, it was a love day.
Sister Tippets, our seminary teacher (Mormon teenagers go to a Sunday-school-like class every school morning called Seminary), loved Valentine’s Day and would come into the classroom and announce the “Week of LUUUUV!” or “Month of LUUUV!” or “Day of LUUUV!” Emphasis placed on the U sound in Love, obviously. She would proceed to talk of charity and service and the Atonement and about fun ways we can show love for each other appropriately. Valentine’s Day was an opportunity to show love enthusiastically, romantic or otherwise.
Thanks Mom and Dad and Sister Tippets for teaching us a constructive way to enjoy Valentine’s Day, with or without a romantic interest to share it with. It’s sure made February more fun.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. I enjoy romance as much as anyone else. I made Colin a present for today and I made him a Valentine card. And I love surprises and going out for dinner and chocolate in boxes and big bouquets of flowers. But for me there’s more to life and love and Valentine’s Day than mushy cards and fancy dates.
Hey, in looking up the origin of Valentine’s Day on the wikipedia, I discovered this page about the Business of Valentine’s Day in the footnotes. Interesting that women buy 85% of cards at Valentine’s…