Love on Valentine's Day

Today, Valentine's Day is a day of candy, flowers, and of course love filled cards. I read an article titled, Valentine's Day- Not Like it Used to Be!", by Jerry Wilson. The title is fitting, because today's Valentine's Day is really not how it used to be. Valentine's Day first started off as a day in mid-February where men pick women's names from a hat to have a sexual companion for the rest of the year (Wilson). Pope Gelasius later changed this to a day where men and women picked saint's names and it was there job to act like them for the rest of the year (Wilson). Today, like I said before, Valentine's Day is a day of candy, flowers, and cards full of love. The first official Valentine's Day card was sent "in 1425 by Charles, duke of Orleans, to his wife. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London at the time" (Wilson). Valentine's Day has clearly come a long way and today, I feel that it is an unneeded day of temptations. Yes, the Valentine's Day season is great for our struggling economy, but with Valentine's Day come a day of temptations for teenagers. This day adds unneeded pressure for us teenagers to have boy and girl friends. In my opinion, I feel that just as Pope Gelasius changed the day, some one else should change this day again to give it a different meaning.

http://wilstar.com/holidays/valentn.htm

Wilson, Jerry. "Valentine's Day- Not Like it Used to Be!." 17 Mar 2009 .