Ten Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Celebrate Valentines Day

It’s that time of the year where people, who call themselves lovers, from all over the world gather round to celebrate their special day. While some are joyous and can’t wait for this day, others detest this day and wish it was wiped off the calendar. Whatever way you view of Valentine’s Day, whether you have a valentine or not, we can all safely agree one thing - it is an annoying day! Annoying in the sense that most people who celebrate it have absolutely no idea the history behind this day and if they do, they just know the basics and haven’t decoded the hidden message of this day.

For all the singles, it’s a depressing day, a day to remind them of what losers they are, or why bother having one when it’s all doom and gloom? For those that have a valentine, it’s annoying to them too because it has now become a compulsory obligation to celebrate it.

Now let me be clear. I’m not in favour or against Valentine’s day. All I have done is study a pattern of what happens on this day and to my amazement they are a lot of cons that people overlook, mainly because of commercialism, that shoves it all in our faces with all the goody valentine day treats.

By now, most people are shopping around for valentine gifts and looking for some good valentine anecdotes but I thought I give you the downside of this day so here goes:

It’s not a love day. It’s a day to remember bloodshed – And that’s where the color red comes from!! In between 13-16th century’s saints of churches were hunted and killed during the violent Roman Empire times. Fast forward three centuries later, Chicago will evidently be known as the city of valentines day massacre. So no love there - just blood, blood and lots of blood, death and roses. The Romans are the ones who decided that it was time people forget these dreadful pasts so they invented “love games” so instead of people mourning and crying, its now become a celebration of love.

Love is not that warm fuzzy feeling. It’s an illusion! - Indeed! Most people confuse love with that infatuation they feel towards somebody and to some extent lust (and not just sexually!) In actual fact love is the opposite of that warm fuzzy feeling. It’s brutal, and if it doesn’t hurt you then it’s not love. Love means sacrifice, bear the pain, and whoever is receiving that love from you will hurt you more than anyone else. This applies to whether you’re in a relationship or not. If you have never felt hurt or pain in a relationship or friendship then you were not experiencing love. You were in illusion land. So you’re not really celebrating love after all. It’s just a day, like any other day and has absolutely no significance in life.

Its bloody expensive! (But companies love this day!) Did you know that the average middle class person who buys valentine day stuff spends about $1,725.65? That’s according to TNS global market and consumer research. It’s even more expensive than Christmas or Halloween. Now that’s just normal folks who have jobs. Celebrities spend an average of $5.3 million on extravagant gifts. Think about it. We claim we are broke and can’t make payments to our utilities and mortgages and yet we are able to fund a day that’s supposed to be a love day when in actual fact it’s a lot of blood and lives lost day. Florists, chocolate making companies and high street chain stores depend on this day as it’s the day they make most profits.

More Breakups than Make-Ups – This is actually the shocker. Over the last 10 years, more people have a broken up relationship after celebrating Valentine’s day. Unlike Christmas where divorces skyrocket, valentine’s day is break up symbol for the unmarried folks that won’t reach the altar. One out of every four relationships ended after an average of two months after valentine’s day. The results of a poll which over ten thousand people took, concluded that 76% of couples were pressured into “showing their love” by buying gifts just to satisfy their partner, only to regret it later and head for breakup land.

14 is an unlucky number – traditionally in the west, 13 is the number associated with bad luck. But in the east, especially China, Singapore and Japan the numbers 1 and 4 attribute to the Buddhists gods of misfortune and calamity. I knew this after travelling to these areas and you will not see the number one or four anywhere. In elevators, there is no fourth floor, in schools there is no primary or secondary four. It’s why in China valentine’s day is celebrated on the 8^th of February which coincides with the Chinese New year. Eight is the figure of new beginnings, full wealth and abundant healing. After over twenty years of research, it has been concluded that every 14^th day of the month is a day of anguish, pain and loss. Plane crashes, shootouts, suicides, usually happens around the 14^th day.

You’re more likely to be fired or laid off or quit your job – You see, during Christmas, jobs are rampant and in January jobs also skyrocket but when February hits, most clients and companies are in financial turmoil. So suddenly there’s a sudden dryness of jobs, or clients. So due to that frustration, either you will quit to go find greener pastures or your company will let you know that they can’t pay you so goodbye. Worse off if you were doing a trial or a probation job, February is the month you won’t be permanent. Again this is based on research by the Harvard Institute of Business & Economics. Six thousand people participated in this study and almost 85% of them became unemployed in the month of February between 14^th and 16^th

It’s the coming out of the closet day – Research done by behavioural analysts, followed the lives of about two thousand “secret gays” over a period of thirty-three months and found that 63% of them came out of the closet on valentine’s day. This is because most of them felt that because people were in love mode, they will more likely be accepted than scorned. Why is this a downside? Because like it or not they are still a lot more straight people than gay people in the world so when one chooses to be gay, it’s a loss for the straight community and traditionally, this day was invented for straight people, so gay people kind of cramp straight people’s style!

You are most likely to suffer from flu – I can testify to that because for the last nine years I have had a flu on valentine’s day each year. It was relieving to find that most people have a flu outbreak on this day too, regardless of whether you live in a hot or cold climate. Scientist have attributed this more as the “love virus” than influenza.

You loose a lot of hair on this day – It’s amazing how people underestimate the power of your hair! Your hair is responsible for your stamina levels, so when it goes, your stamina decreases and your immune system is lowered. So why does your hair fall of on Valentine’s day? If you live in a clod climate, your hair is constantly under attack from the atrocious cold weather. So you spend all day brushing it, blow drying, straighteners and all sorts of chemicals take over the job of the hair follicle. So finally after your hair has been abused and tortured during Christmas, it gives up and falls of on Valentine’s day. If you don’t believe me, try this experiment. Everyday from 1^st of February till 14^th February make a note of how much hair sticks to your brush and come back and write the results on the comments below. You will most likely notice on the 14^th a much bigger chunk has gone to the brush then all the other days.

Best day for scammers to get to you – Scammers are everywhere these days aren’t they? But what you don’t know is they use the powerful tool of emotion to trick you into parting with your money. Most people usually switch to vulnerable love mode on Valentine’s day, and therefore your alertness is lowered. So scammers use very colourful lovely language that will appeal to your weak side. Before you know it, you have spent your money and revealed your credit card details and by the time you’ve woken up from the love coma, you’ve been duped!

In conclusion, I must say that I don’t understand why there is a valentine’s day. Yes it’s nice to feel the love and be all warm and tender but you can do this any time and any day of the year. So don’t be sucked in to commercialization. Be wise and live life according to your terms not the advertiser’s terms!