Happy Singles Awareness Day

One red rose

However all this went out of the window when the internet, in all its infinite wisdom, began to yield its secrets about said day. What really had me convinced, and I’ll start with the best bit, was a strong sense of duty to let the world know that the Japanese Valentine’s Day equivalent involves something called "giri-choko", choko being chocolate and giri being obligation. Women are obliged to buy chocolate for all their male co-workers, so no complaining if all you got was a card signed "anonymously" by your Mum.

I for one would much rather get involved in a similar Chinese celebration called The Night of Sevens which is held on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month and marks the night when the Cowherd Star and the Weaver Maid star cross the Milky Way to be together. To return slightly closer to home, if you’d been living in Wales a few hundred years ago you could have reasonably expected your beloved to have carved you a love spoon, not a phrase I’d ever expected to see in the English language if I’m honest but it sounds like a nice idea all the same.

To get back to the beginning, which is how this column would have been structured if it wasn’t for the shiny trivia that caught my eye, I think we should examine the myth of Saint Valentine. The bit of the story that seems true is that he was a priest under the Roman Emperor Claudius II. After that the myths seem to build up, but they’re quite sweet anyway.

So the story goes that the emperor forbade his young soldiers from being married because he thought it was bad for their skills in battle, but St Valentine would carry out their marriages in secret. When the emperor found out about this he had Valentine arrested and sentenced to death (which seems a bit harsh). On the night before his execution he sent a letter to his beloved and signed it ‘From your Valentine’.

So now we’ve got that sorted we can go back to marvelling at the weird ways it’s celebrated around the world. In Slovenia, St Valentine not only brings true love but roots as well, and so 14th February is the day when plants start to grow. It’s also said to be the day when birds propose to each other.

Meanwhile, back in our consumer society the US Greeting Card Association estimates that about a billion cards are sent each year worldwide and that 85% of them are sent by women.

But if all this has been making you progressively more annoyed with the whole Valentine’s phenomenon you might want to get involved in celebrating SAD - that’s Singles Awareness Day to you and me and if this does interest you then you’re in luck because it’s today! So if you’re single and proud or you just hate the commercialism and forced romance of Valentine’s Day then why not pick yourself some flowers or exchange hand-made gifts with your closest friends. Just be grateful you aren’t obliged to give all your male co-workers a box of Milk Tray.

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