Anyways... Onto the post:
SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY:
So for starters: Who the heck is this guy?
To be honest, no one actually knows whether he's a martyr, a priest, a bishop, or for that matter, a group of people or if this person/these people actually existed. Supposedly he was buried on the Via Flaminia, for what it's worth.
Secondly: Why's his day associated with a bunch of hearts and pink and fluffy, mushy, gushy crap?
There are actually a few different takes on this. There's a version where an emperor banned marriages in hopes of expanding his army, but Valentine opposed it, so he married couples in secret. This got him thrown in jail. There's also a version that he healed his jailer's blind daughter and fell in love with her, so before his execution, he wrote her a love letter and signed it "From your Valentine"
Then there are these disputes of how the estimated time period (ca. 629) means that this would have been focused on sacrifice, not love, yada yada yada, blah blah blah.
The easiest way to sum this up: It has as much to do with it as bunnies and eggs have to do with Easter or trees with bulbs have with Christmas: NOTHING.
Welcome to Hallmark Holidays, everyone.
So what's the point?
Businesses making profit off of your chocolate, flower and plushie shopping binges. Restaurants benefiting from that date you know you have to take them out on. The greeting card industry getting rich off of all those frilly pink pieces of paper that you could actually make yourself for half price.
Scary Statistics for one day of the year:
15% of women in the USA send themselves flowers
73% of flowers are purchased by men
1,000,000 cards are exchanged, making it the second largest card-sending event
3% of pet owners will actually give their pets presents
110,000,000 roses will be sold and delivered, mostly imported red roses from South America
