BY NATALEIGH MCCALLUM
Flowers, chocolate and a romantic dinner, all which you don’t have to worry about.
Let’s be real, you’re going to spend the day on the couch in a pair of sweats watching sappy rom-coms asking yourself why exactly you’re alone on Valentine’s Day. But remember, you’re not the only one.
Actually, if you’re single on Valentine’s Day you can participate in “Singles Appreciation Day” which is also celebrated on Feb. 14 in a humorous manner. You get to wear black to symbolize the absence of celebration – and everyone looks good in black.
Valentine’s Day began with the Romans but the exact story is unknown. However, there are two theories. Some believe that the day derived from Lupercalia, a raucous Roman festival that was celebrated on Feb. 15. Men supposedly stripped naked and spanked young maidens in hopes of upping their fertility – no thank you. The second theory is that the Roman Emperor Claudius II was trying to increase the number of men in his army. He found that it was easier to get single men to go off to war rather than married men with a family. So, he began forbidding young men from marrying. But St. Valentine defied this, in the spirit of love apparently, and began performing secret marriages. For breaking the law, Valentine was supposedly executed on Feb. 14. Since then, we have celebrated his death and passion for love.
But is it really a celebration? For every 100 single women in their 20s there are 119 single men, so why are so many women spending Valentine’s Day alone? More than likely, it is because Nicholas Sparks’ movies make relationships look awesome and that is what we’re constantly looking for.
Despite being a silly holiday, approximately 150 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year, making it the second most popular card-sending holiday following Christmas. Yes, that’s right. But that doesn’t come close to the fact that over 224 million roses are grown just for Valentine’s Day and $1.9 billion is spent on flowers.
So, what can single women on Valentine’s Day do? Well, you can celebrate Galentine’s Day on the 13th, which is the day you get to celebrate your love for your lady friends. Or, you can celebrate Single Appreciation Day on the 14th. Or you can stay on your couch eating chocolate that you, in fact, bought for yourself because “you’re a single independent woman who don’t need no man.”
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