Why We Really Should Celebrate Valentine's Day

Today marks the most hotly debated holiday of the year, Valentine’s Day.  To some it is a celebration of love and others it is consumerism at its best; a "Hallmark" holiday designed to spend money.  But on a day dedicated to loving another, we first have to ask do we really know what love is? 

The dictionary definition of love is an "emotion of strong affection and personal attachment" [1]   Using this definition I should be able to celebrate Valentine's day with anything I want, say even my camera ;)  Philosophically though, love "is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection." [2]

So with two differing definitions which one do we use?  In most circumstances love is associated interpersonally with someone else.  In this case, love can only be defined by combining both concepts into one.  It is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment towards another, but requires kindness, compassion, and affection to keep it sustained long term.

Now that we know what love is, it brings us back to the lively debate.  Why do we need a special holiday to celebrate our love for another?  The main argument being if you love someone all year long you should show them each day instead of one special day. 

A good rebuttal could be why shouldn't we have one?  We are alive each day but celebrate our life on one special day, or people are married all year and celebrate their marriage on special day.  So if we are in love all year why shouldn’t we celebrate it on a special day?

Let’s face it, we should be doing acts of compassion, kindness and affection each day of the year to show others we love them.  But the reality is we don’t.  It is so easy to get wrapped up in our daily lives that it is easy to let these three things fall to the wayside.   Once they go, our strong emotion of affection is no longer being sustained and will soon follow. So I say what is wrong with having a special day each year where we focus on the virtue of Love, by doing so it will only make our love stronger.    

Your Valentine’s Day celebration doesn’t have to be a consumer driven affair.  There are many ways to show your affection and compassion without the extreme costs usually associated with this day.  It can be as simple as a special romantic dinner at home with no distractions, accompanied with a handwritten note telling the other how much they mean to you.

My personal situation has forced Amy and I to find ways to show our compassion and affection on this day without being able to use consumerism.  Last year we spent Our Valentine’s Day in the cancer ward at Trillium, and this year, even though I am home, my condition restricts us to only celebrate at home.  But that doesn’t stop us from taking the time to celebrate this special day and remind each other of our love, we just had to be creative and we always end up having a wonderful time. 

So next time you find yourself getting wrapped up into the classic Valentine’s debate remember the true reason for the day, to celebrate your love for another.  It doesn’t matter if you spent money to do it or not, if we don’t keep celebrating the virtues of love, the emotions of love can’t be sustained.

I have spoken a lot today about love but I wanted to close the post with a quote from Paul to the Corinthians.  In it he speaks about what he would be without love.

“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."[3]


If the minimum it takes is a once a year “consumer” driven holiday to keep the virtues of my love sustaining the emotion, I will take that over losing love and being nothing any day. 

My Valentine’s Day present to all of you is tomorrow you will receive the final part to my Diagnosis Story, have a great day!



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