This may come as a shock, but my second-favorite holiday is, and always has been, Valentine’s Day.
It’s one of those things I could never really explain. As a child, I loved seeing the decorations, looking at the cute things for sale, receiving little cards from classmates that otherwise wouldn’t give me a second thought, and, possibly above all else, trying to make sentences out of the little conversation heart candies. I’d spend countless hours at the kitchen table, trying to make a love note that said something like “Hey You. Let’s Kiss. Be Mine. Love You.” Terribly romantic stuff, I know. As I got older, it became sort of the “in thing” to hate Valentine’s Day, especially if you were single, but even at the loneliest points in my life, I could never bring myself to do such a thing. I don’t think I ever saw the holiday as being exclusively about romantic love. For me it was always about just love and happiness in general. Be it romantic love, friendship, family, a pet, a favorite hobby or interest, surely you have something in your life that’s worth celebrating the love of.
The strange thing is, though, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that maybe my love of Valentine’s Day isn’t so out of character at all. In the Halloween community, “Valloween” has really become a thing over the past several years.
As you can probably guess from my photos, I follow and collect things from many different artists around the internet, most of whom specialize in Halloween. Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a real influx in these artists integrating Valentine’s Day into their Halloween-y creations, such as the little Good Luck Ghost pictured above, made by Spooky Cutes, which, as someone who’s always had such a love for both holidays, has made me extremely happy. I’ve also noticed that many haunted attractions now seem to offer Valentine’s Day themed tours as well. It seems like whoever made that famous “Let’s get rid of Valnetine’s Day and replace it with a second Halloween” meme was onto something after all. There are clearly becoming more and more ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day in a Halloween way.
Something else I have learned, though, is that the concept of Valloween actually isn’t all that new. Many vintage Valentine’s Day cards actually had quite a bit of Halloween flair. You can find a list of quite a few here, and there are plenty of others to be found if you search around the internet as well. It seems as if Halloween and Valentine’s Day have always gone somewhat hand in hand. Current artists are also recreating this trend with both Halloween and horror themed cards as well.
So, I suppose, my lifelong interest in Valentine’s Day isn’t quite that unusual after all. Somehow I was seeing the little thread (or maybe in this case, the bloody heartstring) that was connecting it to my favorite thing in the world. It makes me so happy that my second favorite holiday seems to be evolving into an extension of my favorite time of year. I truly hope everyone has a happy Valloween, no matter how you choose to celebrate.
Stay spooky, my friends.
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