What does Valentine's day mean to you?

It’s just like any other day
Bitter and lonely singles rejoice!

Nothing.
It’s just another day of the week.

That the greetings card industry was short of a buck or two between christmas and Easter.

Long lines at the grocery store, full of men with last minute rose purchases.

I think true love needs no price tag attached to it though I have several exes who expressed disagreement with that sentiment.

I won’t buy jewelry but I’ll acknowledge the holiday spirit by doing something special.
Cooking a nice meal is a good alternative to buying lavish gifts.

actually, not much,
maybe something to ask questions about

Not much! its just another day in February—I love my wife unconditionally every day of the year and tell her as much everyday! I don’t need a Hallmark Holiday to tell me to be romantic with my wife; I do that everyday!

Just an idea of celebrating love. Taking one day to celebrate it.

I do not think you need to go over board with it but at least showing your loved one in some way you love them and care is good at least once a year. I have not had to much romance over the years so I have no clue. V-Day became a much dreaded holiday for me over the years to the point I nearly hate it all together.

It means a day to celebrate my romance with my wife.

Yes, I realize it is a “Hallmark holiday.” Well in the greater sense what holiday isn’t? For me, the point is that humans need days of rest, days of celebration, ritual, commemoration, communion (I mean with each other – not necessarily religious). They can be fun, light-hearted, self-aware and even somewhat ironic, but at the same time deeply fulfilling and life-affirming. Christmas is a much more fraught holiday than Valentine’s, for me: I feel much freer to simply enjoy Valentines, to kiss my wife, eat chocolates and cinnamon hearts, watch the “getting together” episode of “Life of Birds,” and drink champagne. Lovely.

Spicy cinnamon heart shaped candy discounts ftw

Well, today it means cleaning the house and doing some much needed shopping.

It’s the day after shawarma day. Hooray for garlic!

It means spending time with your loved one,going out for dinner..something romantic…I guess when your young you expect more..unfortuantely my hunny left today to iraq so therefor i couldnt have a romantic vday maybe next year…or like he says “its just another wasted day”

Single Awareness Day. Or a couple days after Darwin Day.

It means my husband makes me a delicious dinner.

For me it means getting shitfaced and feeling sorry for myself. Glad it’s over now.

Not important to me, whatsoever.

Nothing much at all, to us. We don’t celebrate it. But we use the excuse of celebrating it to leave the kids with mom and run away for a bit. Today we’re running away to the city.

A fun little day to be extra gushy with my boyfriend and eat a lot of candy.

My girlfriend and I had a late night last night. We didn’t get in until 4 this morning and didn’t go to sleep until 6. ;-) When we got up, we made coffee, then chilled on her sofa for hour or so, listening to music. Basically, we snuggled on her sofa all afternoon (get up to eat and whatnot). I didn’t get out of my jimjams until 4. We were exhausted from last night and really needed to rest. I remember lying on the sofa with her and whilst playing with her hair, I looked out the window and watched the snow fall. Pretty. :) To me, that was romantic.

Hallmark Holiday.

It’s a contrived holiday that even the cretinous DeBeers family would be proud of. If I had all of the the money that people waste on diamonds, cards, candy and restaurants to celebrate Valentine’s Day, I could easily retire to that private Caribbean island I’ve been wanting. I wish people would just save their money and show their loved ones that Valentine’s Day is just another damned day like any other. Spoil your best girl all year ‘round instead.

I didn’t know today was Valentine’s day until someone told me this morning. I don’t find anything special about it. It is just a scam anyway.

To express the thoughts and emotions for the one I love mean everything to me…I am a sucker for special days to say how I feel!

It doesn’t mean that much to me. I tell people I love them every day, not just once a year! But, that being said, I do buy my kids, husbands and parents small gifts.

Another opportunity to show my beloved Vicky just how much I love her. : )))

i just think it’s a delightful excuse for getting/receiving sickeningly sweet gifts / sex on a giant heart-shaped bed. otherwise i don’t think there’s anything particularly special about it, any day is a good day to say “i love you”.

Should you express your love for someone more on this day than others? On this Valentine’s Day I frosted and decorated sugar cookies to send to my daughter and her roommates. I did reserve six of them for my husband, and I’ll keep a few dozen for my other two kids, daughter in law and grandson that will be over for dinner on Tuesday night. For my husband, it was the day of Daytona 500. We did go out for dinner and a movie last night, but Valentine’s Day just isn’t one of the big holidays for me.

I’m always intrigued by the huge amount of anger poured out by (some) single people on this holiday. Far, far more then, say, Jewish people (or any non-christian, for that matter) on Christmas. In fact, most don’t really care. But on valentine’s day, a large number of single people get really, really angry. Why is this? Yes, it’s a manufactured holiday, but as @nicobanks says, what isn’t? Any holiday, at least to me, doesn’t matter for it’s origins, but for what you do with it. Valentine’s day to me is simply a reason to spend a relaxing and romantic weekend. My girlfriend and I watched a nice movie and had a very nice dinner and just had a very good weekend. Nothing big, no diamonds or chocolates or silly hallmark cards, just a nice weekend. Why is this such a cause of anger? Just because there’s lots of lovey stuff around, is it really something to get so angry about? Yes, you don’t have someone and I do, boo hoo. I’m sorry, but I won’t hide away and not be happy because you’re not.

And everyone saying “But i always love my girl/man”, you’re being a little silly. Yes, if you’re in a good relationship this should not matter. But for most of us, we get caught up in work or school (or both, for me, silly grad school), or don’t always have the money for random gifts, or for whatever reason don’t always show our romantic sides. Why not simply take this random holiday as a nice excuse to be romantic/show a little more love then usual? Shouldn’t you take every excuse, even if it is a little silly?

Anyway, what it means to me is just a nice little excuse to spend a little money and be a little more romantic then usual. If that angers anyone, or makes people sad that I’m not always this romantic, then * shrug * I’m sorry, but it works well for me. And at the very least, I don’t mind giving money to companies I like, such as for the excellent dinner I had tonight. Why should I care about when I give them money? But, now I’m going back into it, I’ll stop now, and finish out my day with a nice movie with my girlfriend. And for those of you who are sad or angry today, I hope some day you can share a similar happiness with someone. Then, maybe, you can stop being so angry, and realize why this holiday isn’t quite so bad.

@Rufus_T_Firefly I have to disagree with you about DeBeers. You should read this article if you think that valentine’s day would make them proud. Debeers’ people were absolute masters, and have done far more impressive (if cretinous) things then make a silly holiday.

May I pop the ultra depressing cherry?

When I was sixteen, my uncle died right before Valentine’s Day. To top it off, on Valentine’s Day, I found out my best friend was going out with the guy I liked and who she swore to my face she would never date. Since then, all the Valentine’s Day trappings just depress me a little.

So, I am happy to say that this Valentine’s Day, I played Risk at a friend’s place and we watched the Olympics. We said happy Valentine’s Day to each other and my boyfriend got to hang out with these people for the first time ever. I can only hope next Valentine’s Day is as ordinary and fun. :)

@BhacSsylan I can’t speak for everyone else who doesn’t love this holiday, but I harbor no anger on this day, single or not. It’s not that I dislike Valentine’s Day, I just don’t happen to like it, either. I’m pretty indifferent.

@DrasticDreamer Oh, i tried to make it clear that I don’t believe everyone hates it. I just find far more people that do hate this holiday as compared to any other.

@BhacSsylan Ah, okay. Yeah, I see what you’re saying. :)

@BhacSsylan I’m not single and I express anger at it.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir All right. Why, please? And please tell me if you think you reason is truly a good one for anger. Is seems like you did something yesterday, and used valentine’s day as a good excuse. Why be angry at it, it’s served your purposes.

@BhacSsylan Because it’s a commercialized holiday – because it gets people off from doing anything romantic for their partners any other time – because it strains relationships around that time as there are all these expectations and no one really cares to think outside the chocolate, the rose and the heart shaped balloon – it trivializes something that is much more than all that. We use it, of course, because we’re parents and we’ll take any night out but has nothing to do with valentine’s day.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Many holidays are commercialized, and it is probably a bad thing, I agree. However, shouldn’t we be more angry at, say, Christmas, which has perverted a religious celebration to something, frankly, unrecognizable? Valentine’s day, in comparison, is rather harmless. Yes, some people get stupid, but should you really blame a random day because of the stupidity of other people? That’s my opinion, though.

As to straining relationships, this is certainly not the fault of the holiday. Yes, the stores sell it like that, but I won’t blame the holiday for the susceptibility of other people to advertising. If they believe that they only have to be romantic on one day of the year, or that if you don’t buy chocolates and roses, you are a bad partner, then they have some deeper relationship issues that should be addressed.

Most people, I think, are angry not because of the day but because of all the stupid people that use it badly. But, at least to me, stupid people aren’t a reason to get angry, at least not because they feed the chocolate industry once a year. There are far more important things to be angry about stupid people for. You’re angry at society, not a silly little day. Why not switch it, and be angry at them some other time, and just allow yourself to enjoy an excuse to go out? If it bothered you that much, your dinner would have sucked, and I truly hope it didn’t. For me, I’m angry at the stupidity of others quite a bit, so when a holiday comes that suggests I celebrate love, I find that being angry is just a little counter productive, and I say “Hey, this restaurant is having a really good deal, and you know what, I should take you to see this movie, I know you’d like it”, and I have a great day. I think my main question is this: Why let it get under your skin, when most problems with the day are simply symptoms of something else entirely?

@BhacSsylan all right. i don’t think ‘angry’ was the right word to use.

@BhacSsylan I think a lot of people feel sad that they don’t have an SO, and this holiday is a reminder. It is a day where you know, or I guess you think, that everyone else not only has an SO, but on this day the SO is doing extra special nice things, so people are more likely to feel left out and lonely, if they are inclined to be sad about not having a partner to begin with.

People do get very sad on Christmas also when they are unable to be with family, or it does not meet their expectations. Thanksgiving is another one.

Personally, I like the Valentine’s Day of childhood when we wrote cute little letters to everyone in our class. Like on Facebook how everyone passed Valentine’s around.

My husband does things for me all of the time, it means way more to get something for no reason, no specific holiday, just because he is thinking of me, then on any Hallmark Day.

@BhacSsylan http://listverse.com/2010/02/10/14-miserable-facts-about-st-valentines-day/

Candy hearts really do taste like crap.

@KatawaGrey You mean the nasty chalk ones?

@rangerr: Blech, yes. They coat my teeth in a fine layer of powder that never comes off and taste, well, like chalk!

@Simone_De_Beauvoir that article is mostly about generally depressing facts, not those specifically for valentines day, mostly 5, 6/7, 13, and 14. Then, there’s those that are about valentines day but frankly, don’t have anything to do with the holiday, such as 2, 3, and 11. (i reject 2 on the basis that almost any transport medium today involves fossil fuels. Not really specific enough). 8 isn’t even miserable, just interesting, and the ones that are left, lets see: 1, Okay, that’s a lot of waste, but that’s an issue with that industry, which perhaps should be reformed. 4, not quite sure why that’s depressing, it’s sad, but he was an early christian MARTYR, after all. And there are probably more then 365 christian martyrs, for that matter. 9, okay, loney and insecure is an issue, in admit. But again, do non-christians feel such lonliness on christmas? Probably not. most holidays are related to a certain ‘in-crowd’, and again, I don’t think it’s right to hate a holiday just because you’re not the particular in-crowd. Perhaps some should try hanging out with friends, or in general celebrating other forms of love. 12, that’s their own issue, not really a ‘miserable fact’, except for those who are significant others of them. And, frankly, plans should not really be necessary for V-Day unless you need reservations somewhere. And lastly, 10. Yeah, that doesn’t really count, especially since that article is helping to foster those very feelings.

i will 100% admit that those cand hearts suck, though

@BhacSsylan – That was precisely the point I thought I had made. The Debeers WERE absolute masters… and they should have been (and probably are) very proud indeed at how well their ruse has worked. At the very least, they should be angry and scared that other companies are stealing their schtick. I don’t see any point where we disagree, though.

Oh, i was simply saying that the things Debeer’s pulled off were far and away more impressive then the creation of valentine’s day. that’s all.

@BhacSsylan – No harm. No Foul.

Nothing.To me it is a usless holiday.And every valentines day I shun the people that like that day unless they are themselves in a relashionship.And maybe when I am in one my opinion will change.But in all the past ones I still dont see the point in it.

A day to celebrate a romance you may have. Maybe it’s a day to slow you down to where you can focus and put time aside for some couple stuff that may be getting put to the back burner. When you work a lot and have conflicting schedules then you justify not taking the time for an unhurried sit down meal or a long lazy tub soak, nap and massage session. Whatever. Some people need a designated day for some things they’d otherwise keep putting second to time constraint, energy levels and the biggest one, the needs of others.

For me personally then it’s a day I want to go out to dinner with my partner and not do any dishes. I want to dress in clothes that’ll make his eye twinkle that I don’t have to wear very long. I want to wear my nice pefume, sport coifed hair and pampered nails. I want him to feel dashing and dapper after so many days of hot sweaty sun work, uncomfortable shoes and ridiculous work shirts. I want a day to be frivolous but not feel frivolous to spoil my partner with decadent food nibbles, champagne, candles, flowers, etc. I love to give him gifts but I can’t afford it as often as I’d like so holidays and such give me the opportunity. Yes, I like goodies in return too. I want my partner to celebrate they’ve got me as their romantic partner.

chocolate

What is means is BIG MONEY for retail establishments in between the BIG MONEY holiday of Christmas and the now BIG MONEY holiday of Easter. Marketers have mastered the time table for getting us to part with big money and Valentine’s Day is one of these times.

Excellent chocolate cannndie. Thankssss!