Easter is the time at which Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus after His crucifixion, and the redemption of us all through His sacrifice. It's more religious, but institutional too, combined with Passover, including most of us. We pray, we ask God's blessing and indulgence on our humble lives. We eat, the Easter Bunny comes and leaves goodies. Cards are sent. Happy Easter, Spring is here!
Thanksgiving celebrates those things we have and what we have been able to accomplish in the life that has been allotted to us. The sheaves are brought in, the harvest is a fait accompli. We get together, feast, give thanks, watch football. Some send cards... Happy Thanksgiving! (Christmas is just around the corner.)
But Valentine's Day - This is a personal affair, between two people who proclaim the reciprocation of their love for each other, if it is truly reciprocal, and even then they fake it if they have doubts from which they can't escape. Valentine's Day is not a family or group celebration, but one where mutual love is somehow declared, choices are made, and expressed. The only card to be sent is that to your love, hopefully your lover. It's not a "Happy Valentine's Day to everybody" festivity.
I remember a long time ago, my first Valentine's Day in early elementary school, when each of us placed ONE valentine in the white slotted box decorated with hearts, our valentine sent to the one we fancied with a plea to "Be My Valentine" - A singular entreaty to a single person. There were, unfortunately, those to whom no valentines were sent, none received, thus they would have ended up unchosen, ostensibly unloved; but our provident sister/teacher, foreseeing this situation and coming to the rescue, kept a ready store of valentines addressed to every student just-in-case, signed "From a Secret Admirer" preventing hearts, alas, from being broken through disappointment on this day of expressed love. Smart sister/teacher. Then, as it developed through the years, to spare hurt feelings, the rule was finally made that everyone had to send a valentine to everyone in the class, thus totally diluting the whole idea, but of course great for the purveyors of valentines, Hallmark and the like. As a result, the whole classroom valentine "celebration" added up to - not much. Everybody began sending valentines to everybody. Another "family" day. Net result: Good business for Hallmark and the US Postal Service. Still in some cases, of the most sensitive, hurt feelings, disappointment of another kind, a result of pre-emption.
I still subscribe to the notion that Valentine's Day is a personal celebration of the love, such as it may be, between TWO people, the "such-as-it-is" part being applied possibly to the likes of married folks who are for-better-or-for-worse-ing. It's a time-out-for-love day when all the other picayune differences are forgotten, and the love is allowed to emerge, thus the celebratory part. However, when it becomes a general day for everybody to send cards and give gifts and express wishes to everybody, it co-opts the personal love of the individuals, to the point where it robs them of the inclination to make their own declarations, affirm their own personal choices, put their own special "Be My Valentine" in the slot in the white box decorated with the red hearts.
Henry Francisco, Special to
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