As for its origin, the more popular theory is that the ancient Roman emperor Claudius II forbade Romans to marry during wartime, thinking that unmarried men would make better soldiers. A priest named Valentine presided over the wedding in private against the holy will and was executed on February 14, 269 AD. Some people say that Valentine's Day also originated from Lupercalia in ancient Rome. Lupercalia is held in mid-February every year. The ancient Romans regarded March as the beginning of a year, and February was the time to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new. The festival is divided into three parts: sacrifices, feasts, and streaking. First, the priest kills the sheep and dogs, smears the blood on the forehead of the young man, and tears the sheepskin into small strips to make a whip; This can improve their reproductive capacity.
It is said that in the fifth century, Pope Gerasius combined Saint Valentine's Day and Lupercalia into one to remove the "pagan" color of the latter. But apart from the fact that the participants (Christians) are well-dressed, the nature of the festival does not seem to have changed, it is still a celebration of love and reproduction. With the passage of time and the praise of St. Valentine's Day in the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare, the modern Valentine's Day gradually took shape. In 1868, the British Cadbury Company first launched Valentine's Day heart-shaped chocolates. In 1913, Hallmark began mass-producing Valentine's Day cards. February 14th finally became the most romantic day of the year.
How to celebrate Valentine's Day? Columnist Sophia Benoit told men in an article in GQ magazine that the focus of Valentine's Day is not on flowers, chocolates, or teddy bears. Women only want you to do one thing on Valentine's Day: plan. The secret to making a woman feel loved, she says, is planning. Women usually plan everything for men. On this day, men should let women take a breath and plan something by themselves, such as a romantic dinner-if they have money to eat out, they can't afford to cook at home. The point is, the man has to arrange everything. She explained that in the relationship between the sexes, women want men to work hard for this relationship (We want you to want to do the work of being in a relationship with us). She quoted Jennifer Aniston's words to Vince Vaughn in the movie "The Break-Up": I don't want you to do the dishes, I want you to do the dishes. So the point is not to do, but to want to do...
It is unclear how many women's voices Benoit expressed, but certainly not all. Also, as a media practitioner, she seems to think that audiences (men in this case) can be educated about what they want. Indeed, people use frames of reference to understand or adjust their needs. This frame of reference may be the world around us or the world in writing, radio waves, or screens. An ancient poem tells us: We miss our loved ones every festive season. Therefore, although our needs for loved ones may be continuous, they should reach their climax on New Year's Eve. In fact, holidays are often times when needs education is concentrated.
But a Valentine's Day "survival guide" like Benoit's article can also have the downside of turning Valentine's Day into a challenge, a job to tackle, a time of peril and caution. In short, Valentine's Day is not romantic at all. Festivals are not meant to be relaxing and entertaining, but often feel doubly stressful because of the rules and rituals. After the control check, if the requirements are not met, it will be doubly frustrating. For example, on Valentine’s Day, there are no romantic lovers or people who don’t have a romantic partner. The latter group changed Valentine's Day to Singles Awareness Day in an attempt to turn things around, but the acronym for the holiday is SAD (Sorrowful), which may partly show how they really feel.