With Valentine’s day comes the necessity of buying expensive presents, chocolates, cards and jewellery for their loved ones. I feel like most people already forgot the real meaning of this celebration. This holiday was originally to show affection to your “valentine,” nowadays people just care about the material aspects. Why does there need to be a special day of the year dedicated to showing love?
Many people feel obligated to buy presents for their loved ones, because everybody else is doing it. According to a poll from Offers.com, 13 percent of women say they celebrate just because everyone else does. I don’t think they buy those presents to show their love, they do it more because nowadays the society stipulated that on Valentine’s Day, you need to show your love in form of a present.
People spend millions of dollars to show their love on this one day of the year. “190 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making Valentine’s Day the second-most popular greeting-card-giving occasion, after Christmas,” according to Greeting Card Association.
I feel like Valentine’s Day, after all of these years, lost the real meaning. Now, is just an excuse to expect to receive presents from your loved one. But at the same time, love is way more important than a material thing, and people don’t seem to agree with this anymore.
“The average U.S. consumer spent around $102 on Valentine’s Day gifts, meals and entertainment in 2009. Roughly 92 percent of married Americans with children will spend most of that money (about $67) on their spouse; the rest goes to Valentine’s Day gifts for kids, friends, coworkers and even pets,” according to an annual U.S. National Retail Federation survey.
We should show affection to those we love each day and not wait for a special occasion based on materialism.