More Recent Comments

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!



Who was Saint Valentine and why do we (males) have to buy flowers and chocolates today?1 Nobody really knows very much about the Saints Valentine (there were about a dozen of them). The whole idea of romantic Valentine's day seems to have been invented by Geoffrey Chaucer sometime around 1380.

It seems like people in England just wanted to enjoy a bit of debauchery fun on February 14th so they connected their frolics with a Roman Catholic saint in order to get the permission of the church! Pretty clever, eh?


1. And why don't women have to reciprocate?

5 comments :

Aratina Cage said...

1. And why don't women have to reciprocate?

In some cultures, they do. For example, there is White Day (Π Day) in Japan.

Aratina Cage said...

Erm, actually it is on White Day that the males reciprocate. Valentine's Day is the one where females give candies. :)

Karen said...

My husband and I "celebrate" Valentines Day by not spending one single cent on anything related to it. No candy, cards, flowers, champagne, dinner out, etc. Enough already with the commercialization of love!

MartinDH said...

Aratina: Yokahamamama (a USian ex-pat living in Japan) had a blog entry about Japan's perspective on Valentine's Day:
http://yokohamayomama.blogspot.com/2011/02/happy-valentines-day-part-i.html

She'll be doing the follow up on White Day.

Anonymous said...

1. And why don't women have to reciprocate?

They do, sex.