Emotional blackmail approaches

The mother-of-all emotional blackmail days is here. Tomorrow, the world celebrates Valentine's Day with most people not knowing who St. Valentine was.

And it's not individuals who pile on the pressure emotionally. This is mostly the media and the shopping malls. Of course it makes sense for them to do it... it earns them a lot of moolah.

So everywhere you turn, there's an advert for Valentine's Day and a "good deal" lurking around the corner.

And yes, most of the stuff is targetted to the obvious segment of the populace which gets swayed by all the soft sell. So there's cuddly teddy bears with hearts and chocolates going right up to a Tiffany's solitaire being hawked as possible Valentine's Day gifts for "Your Valentine".

So I decided to do a little bit of research on this. And this is what I found.

The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer's "Parliament of Foules" you can read:

For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers' tokens.

So I guess we have taken something and blown it right out of proportion. Like always, we have taken a simple thing which would have communicated genuine love to making it a commercial, media hyped, consumer event.

And for the record, there were three St. Valentines.

I am sure all three of them are turning in their graves at the modern interpretation of love.