In all respects I am a big sap and love any opportunity to show the ones I love that I care about them. I will occasionally shower them with chocolate, lemon meringue pie and scrawl I love you all over the place. [I know it all is rather pathetic] However, as much as I like the fundamental notion of Valentines Day I can't really say that I agree with the whole commercial aspect of it. There seems to be something superficial about the whole treat your love one to something materialistic today so you can show them that you love them. I mean don't you usually show them that you love them each and everyday. When has the need to buy big expensive gifts become a way of showing someone that you care for them? Color me silly but I thought a simple "I love you " would suffice.
For those history buffs out there here's how valentines day came into being. Its unedited, unaltered and swiped directly from the page, as I didn't have enough brainpower to paraphrase it into my own words.
"Mid February was traditionally the time of the Lupercian festival, an ode to the God of fertility and a celebration of sensual pleasure, a time to meet and court a prospective mate. In AD 496, Pope Gelasius outlawed the pagan festival. But he was clever to replace it with a similar celebration, although one deemed morally suitable. He needed a "lovers" saint to replace the pagan deity Lupercus.
The martyred Bishop Valentine was chosen as the patron saint of the new festival.
Saint Valentine had been beheaded for helping young lovers marry against the wishes of the mad emperor Claudius. Before execution, Valentine himself had fallen in love with his jailer's daughter. He signed his final note to her, "From Your Valentine", a phrase that has lasted through the centuries."
Pope Gelasius didn't get everything he wanted. The pagan festival died out, it is true, but he had further hoped people would emulate the lives of saints. Instead they latched onto the more romantic aspect of Saint Valentines religious life. While not immediately as popular as the more passionate pagan festival, eventually the concept of celebrating true love became known as Valentine's Day"