By Veronika M. Heinrich

When­ev­er I talk to peo­ple about Valentine’s Day, I get some sort of hate­ful response. It’s only about mon­ey. You’re forced to buy some­thing for your sig­nif­i­cant oth­er or they’ll be mad. It’s more roman­tic to show your love every day in small ges­tures rather than doing so only one day a year. And it’s all just a devi­ous plan of the indus­try, try­ing to sell heart-shaped food, flow­ers, and oth­er fes­tive nonsense.

Is that the truth or can Valentine’s Day be some­thing more? As a fan of spread­ing love and appre­ci­a­tion, I want to inves­ti­gate this fur­ther. What are the roots of Valentine’s Day? And how can we escape all this neg­a­tiv­i­ty and make it an enjoy­able day?

Read more »