Slightly baffled

[valis2]

Where did the idea that Valentine's Day is a "greeting card company holiday" come from? I mean, according to Wikipedia, it's been around for a while. I had always heard the story of Saint Valentine in school.

Someone on the radio in WI was talking about how it's a holiday made up by the greeting card industry, but that's not true. And then I read it somewhere on my flist, I think. It's not like Grandparent's Day. It's an old holiday.

Comments

[vampireanneke.livejournal.com]

Just go to wiki for more info...
In 1797, a British publisher issued The Young Man’s Valentine Writer, which contained scores of suggested sentimental verses for the young lover unable to compose his own. Printers had already begun producing a limited number of cards with verses and sketches, called “mechanical valentines,” and a reduction in postal rates in the next century ushered in the less personal but easier practice of mailing Valentines. That, in turn, made it possible for the first time to exchange cards anonymously, which is taken as the reason for the sudden appearance of racy verse in an era otherwise prudishly Victorian.[32]

Paper Valentines became so popular in England in the early 19th century that they were assembled in factories. Fancy Valentines were made with real lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in the mid-19th century.[33] In the UK, just under half the population spend money on their Valentines and around 1.3 billion pounds is spent yearly on cards, flowers, chocolates and other gifts, with an estimated 25 million cards being sent.[34] The reinvention of Saint Valentine's Day in the 1840s has been traced by Leigh Eric Schmidt.[35] As a writer in Graham's American Monthly observed in 1849, "Saint Valentine's Day... is becoming, nay it has become, a national holyday."[36] In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by Esther Howland (1828–1904) of Worcester, Massachusetts.[37][38]

...
So basically it was started by a book publisher, and followed by card makers, both being paper goods dealers, it's easy to swap one for the other.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Totally interesting!

Still, it isn't a new holiday. It has some basis in the past and it has a bit of a historical tradition behind it, unlike other holidays like Sweetest's Day.

Thanks so much for the extra detail!

[wiccarowan.livejournal.com]

I don't know about being invented by greeting card companies, but it's certainly been hijacked by them, much as so many of the other holidays have been. It used to be the case that there'd be a small stand of v-day stuff in the shops. Now it takes over the universe for a whole bloody month beforehand.

/grumpy old bag

[valis2.livejournal.com]

hee! Yeah, there's been a commercialization of this holiday, much like every other holiday. Still, it has roots in the past, and I'm not sure why people seem to think it's a new holiday made up by the greeting card companies. Those companies didn't even exist when this tradition was popularized.

[fer-de-lance.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. I suspect what people who say that mean is that the holiday's current incarnation -- a day for appreciation of one's sexual/romantic partner -- is industry-generated. (If you asked ten people in the street what the meaning/history of Valentine's Day was, I doubt even one of them would know it was created for a saint who married people despite a law against it, never mind the circumstances or how he died or anything.)

[lady-branwyn.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they are confused and actually mean Sweetest Day in October. That one actually was invented by commercial interests.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

That's totally what I was thinking. There's this trend to just bash on holidays and act like they're all puppets of the greeting card industry. I don't get it.

And I love your icon so much!

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

It's gotten as overblown just as every other holiday has. Christmas now starts before Thanksgiving. Memorial Day has become known as the start of summer instead of a day to look to the past. So it is with Valentine's Day.

Maybe it's time to find some new holidays...

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, commercialization has run rampant over everything. Still, Valentine's Day has a real historical tradition and I'm sad to see it lumped in with other, not-so-historical holidays.

[innerslytherin]

It's a very old holiday, but I have to think it wasn't always celebrated by giving very incredibly expensive flowers and jewelry to people. Not that I would mind getting those things, you understand, but I think a card and chocolate are more than enough to celebrate it.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe V-Day was celebrated by throwing virgin sacrifices off the top of towers. *G* Wasn't Valentine a martyr?

[valis2.livejournal.com]

True, it probably wasn't celebrated that way originally, and it looks like it was a revived holiday, not a continuous one. Still, it's not really a modern, greeting-card-company holiday, at least in my head. lol! ;)

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

I don't think people are questioning the existence of Valentine's day as such. After all there is a catholic saint for about half the days in a year if I am any judge. The question is more what people and the industry makes of it.

In Germany, we feel it a lot stronger than in the US I think, mostly because holidays that were never mentioned here came over to us from across the pond. Halloween for one. Valentine's day. I'm just waiting for Thanksgiving to come - wouldn't that be weird? (We do have " harvest thanksgiving" as a christian holiday around harvest season - but that's different and not really celebrated by many).

What I hate about all those industrialized holidays is that it turned from the happy excuses to get together into an order to spend money. If you are not willing to spend a lot of money you don't love your partner/parents/children etc. It's a development I resent and I think that's what makes people say "this is a new holiday" when they mean "it's a new way to handle it".

[valis2.livejournal.com]

It's just that the lady on the radio basically flat-out said it was a made up, greeting-card holiday, but yet it predates the greeting-card industry. That's what made me a little mad. :(

And yeah, I'm not very happy with the commercialization of these holidays; I always hope that people celebrate in their own way and ignore the crass aspects.

*hugs*