POINT

Nikki Tinerella

Valentine’s Day has its pros and cons but in my opinion, Valentine’s Day is a day to express love in many different ways. It is the one day out of the year when everything is focused on love and positivity.

Valentine’s Day has been around for a long time, and the first Valentine’s Day was in the year 496. That goes to show Valentine’s Day has been celebrated for the longest time, and people keep the tradition up because of the positivity it continues to spread.

Valentine’s Day has been celebrated throughout all my school years, and I loved it. In elementary school, we would pass out candy and write notes to each other, and I always found it fun. The reason why I love it is because Valentine’s Day is filled with romantic gestures and the gifts show affection and people give and receive gifts for sentimental reasons.

After everything that has happened these past years in the world, it is one day out of the year when positivity is more openly advertised than usual. Whether you are celebrating Valentine’s Day with your friends, significant others, or family, it has a deeper significance than any other day.

There are several different ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day, such as going to dinner, watching a movie, playing a board game, baking, going to breakfast, exchanging gifts, taking a trip, and many other activities people can participate in.

There is no exact way to celebrate Valentine’s Day, but Valentine’s Day helps acknowledge how much friendship and relationships matter. Valentine’s Day should be celebrated by everyone every year. It shows a big increase in positivity one day out of the year and makes people appreciate the people surrounding them.

COUNTERPOINT

Kamryn Koehnen

Although there are ways that Valentine’s Day seems like a lighthearted and loving holiday, there are many unpleasant and nasty concepts that come along with it. Everyone overanalyzes the meaning of Valentine’s Day and doesn’t even know the dark origins.

The backstory on Valentine’s Day is a harsh one. It includes stories about how Valentine’s Day originated from the Roman fertility festival. During the festival, they would sacrifice a goat and a dog. They believed that it would make the women more fertile if they used the hides of those animals and hit them with it.

Also starting off with a question: why is there only one representative day to show love? People should be expressing their love to their partner every day and this holiday only materializes their love.

Expectations for Valentine’s Day include creating the “perfect” night. Leading up to Valentine’s Day, the prices of flowers, chocolates, and restaurants are hiked up and can add up to the price of Christmas. Restaurants become extremely hard to get into, and many people can become disappointed and start unnecessary fights with their partners.

I used to enjoy Valentine’s Day in elementary and middle school because we used to make those little boxes, and everyone would bring candy, and everyone would be included. Now as we grow older, the day is meaningless for someone who doesn’t have a partner, and it is completely anti-single. This also creates a lot of competition and jealousy, especially on social media.

Overall, Valentine’s Day is an unnecessary holiday that excludes many, becomes extremely expensive, creates envy and greed, and, most importantly, has a terrible and gruesome history.