Monday, February 9, 2009

Bitter and just a little sweeter

A recent study shows that four out of four people will die in their lifetimes.

That single line has put my identity on jeopardy! But here here, I'm sure that half out of those four people have a reason for their deaths and I'm pretty sure that somewhere amongst all of it's bitterness is a touch of sweet. It's T-Minus Five days until the day when disgusting sweet tarts are everywhere and cards that cost five dollars more than their actual sentimental value are given away. How exciting.

Here's a clip on my previous years' Valentines Day.... Okay, I really don't remember, but let's just pretend that I'm off gallantly drowning in chocolates and sweethearts and all those other hearts that come along on the fine occasion. Well, honestly that didn't happen, but in my future I wouldn't mine not spending a V-Day moping in self pity for being alone without a significant other.

Stupid timing.

The origins of Valentines Day are very mixed amongst the bitter and bittersweet. Taken from urbandictionary.com: ERnin_irene classifies Valentines day as "a day to make lonley people depressed and loved people possesed", Brandi says that it's "A scam made by the greeting card company", TheGoblin is quite possibly the most unnpessimistic- "February 14th. A great day for people in relationships, a time to spend lots of money on each other and feel loved. An awful day for single people, who become envious of couples who celebrate Valentines Day because they get nothing."

Hmm. How nice.

I decided to Wikipedia Valentines Day, and I found this part of it rather interesting:

In Ancient Rome, Lupercalia, observed February 13 through 15, was an archaic rite connected to fertility, without overtones of romance. Lupercalia was a festival local to the city of Rome. The more general Festival of Juno Februa, meaning "Juno the purifier "or "the chaste Juno," was celebrated on February 13-14. Pope Gelasius I (492-496) abolished Lupercalia.

So wait a minute? No overtones of Romance? BUT VALENTINES DAY IS ALL ABOUT ROMANCE!!!!! ! ! In fact it wasn't even called Valentine's Day it was called Lupercalia! And it was so icky that the POPE abolished it! Wow.

Some more interesting information about KISSES:

Love letters throughout the year are often signed with a string of "X's" to represent kisses. Why? Our practice of using an "X" grew out of the Medieval practive of letting those who could not write, mark documents with an "X" to represent their names. This was done in the presence of Witnesses and a kiss was given upon the "X:" to show sincerity. The "X" then became synonomous with the kiss in the minds of most people. There are two possible explanations why an "X" was chosen to represent one's name. One explanation is that the "X" shape was originally thought of as a cross. This "X" shaped cross was the symbol of St. Andrew. It may have been that people were making a pledge in the name of the Saint. The second explanation is that it may have been a plege in the name of Christ. The "X", or chi symbol is also a letter of the Greek alphabet, which has also been used to represent the name of Christ.

Quite interesting, if I may so so myself :) Whatever the case for all those out there who absolutely despise Valentines Day, remember you're not alone. In fact, you're FAR from alone. So break out some good chick flicks or scary movies and forget about your pain.

FUNFACT: 61% of dudes want flowers, too. How odd.

-Karma Police

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