It's that time of year again.
The time when I, arguably the reigning queen of not living life by a calendar, shocks the world, or at least the online community, by declaring that my second favorite holiday, the only non-Halloween holiday I genuinely care about, is, in fact, Valentine's Day.
If you've followed me long enough, maybe you know this already, but it's become tradition for me to talk about it here each year.
I've loved Valentine's Day as long as I've been alive. My heart would leap as a child, when the stores would start turning pink and red, filled with random stuffed animals and silly puns presented by doe-eyed puppies and kittens, or of-the-moment children's TV and movie stars. Second only to choosing my Halloween costume, was the decision of which Valentines I would hand out in class. I still remember second grade, thinking I'd be the coolest kid in class because everyone was so obsessed with The Lion King and I managed to find Valentines featuring all the characters. Every single one of the boys was given a goofy picture of Pumbaa that said "Have a crazy day", as it seemed the least likely to imply I had a crush. (Side note: I actually did have a crush in my second grade class but I have no recollection at all of how I handled it that Valentine's Day.) I secretly hoped the girls would want to be my friends when they saw Simba and Nala staring back at them from their little cardboard cards. Alas, these Valentines didn't make me popular, but it was always fun to feel like I fit in for a day, like I was being celebrated along with everyone else, somehow.
It was also through Valentine's Day that I started to figure out how much I enjoyed words and writing. I would spend significant amounts of time sitting at the kitchen table with the little candy "conversation hearts", trying to string together sentences and conversations. I would invent games with them as well, such as writing out "Mad Libs" type stories with blank sections, during which I'd randomly pull a heart of the bag and read its message. It was a favorite pastime of mine and was probably the way I celebrated Valentine's Day until I was about twenty.
Even being in relationships, though, never made me feel like Valentine's Day was strictly about romantic love. I was always of the mindset that Valentine's Day could be about loving anything...just celebrating happiness and joy in general. The cute, colorful decor in the dead of winter, after the long lull following Christmas and New Year's, sparked all sorts of excitement in me, just to have a celebration in general. As time went on I started to realize just how many people downright hate Valentine's Day, and it just seems so silly to me. No one is excluded from celebrating it based on relationship status. Surely you have something in your life that you love enough to celebrate.
It's interesting, though, that, as the years have gone on, I've watched Valentine's Day morph from a hated holiday, to one embraced by my own community of people. I always loathed those memes that stated "Let's get rid of Valentine's Day and replace it with Second Halloween!" and would have to grit my teeth when friends and family would send them to me. It was funny to me because, obviously it seemed like I should feel that way, and truth be told, odds are good I would trade literally any other holiday, including my own birthday, for a second Halloween. But, over time, Valentine's Day has basically become second Halloween, without having to erase itself from existence. The two holidays have merged beautifully, and I couldn't be happier about it. Yes, the Halloween community has done its part to incorporate Halloween into every special day, but it feels more seamless, somehow, with Valentine's Day.
And that likely has to do with the fact that there has always been a correlation between the two holidays. I know I mention this every year, but it never ceases to fascinate me how many traditions of both holidays, many years ago, seemed to go hand in hand. Valentines often contained imagery of ghosts and witches, while Halloween postcards often depicted rituals relating to romance. Sometimes, it's hard to distinguish a vintage Valentine from a vintage Halloween card. And this always makes me smile, as it reminds me that maybe, I am not so strange, after all.
Perhaps Valentine's Day has always been for the spooky kids, as well as the romantics. Maybe more.
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