Why I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day

I'm not a Jehovah's Witness. I celebrate birthdays, exchange gifts during the winter holidays, send congratulatory cards to “just married” couples, graduates, and new mothers. When it comes to Valentine's Day, or Saint Valentine's Day, however, I get annoyed. (More annoyed than cynical, which is a good thing on my standards.) I find the middle-aged women I walk past in downtown wearing red blouses and those red plastic flashing heart-shaped necklaces that look like it cost no more than .12 cents (US) to make, extremely annoying. I wouldn't walk up to them and rip their shirts or necklaces off. It just really annoys me. It makes me want to yell out loud, “Why don't you wear your red blouses and necklaces everyday?!”

It's not because I've never had a Valentine or was ever given a dozen roses (and I'm a 24 year-old cute “hapa”!) that I find some people on Valentine's Day annoying and refuse to “celebrate” the “holiday.”

Well, now that I think about it, I guess I wouldn't know if I would be annoyed with Valentine's Day if I had a Valentine and was given a dozen roses.

I did come up with a sufficient (to me at least) explanation about what I believe to be the ridiculousness of Valentine's Day and other holidays. Please read my column: Half Enough/Cross-culturing Valentine's