Ah, Valentine’s day, the day of love… (Part 1)

The Eskimos had fifty-two names for snow because it was important to them: there ought to be as many for love. —

Valentine’s Day— the name of the holiday conjures up childhood images of heart-shaped greeting cards, chubby cupids, and giggly public-school romancing. Yet this holiday, like most others, has been commercially exploited.

Nowadays all true sentimentalists, from hard-core prodigals to casual window shoppers, must go to great lengths to avoid the thousands of varieties of mass-produced Valentine’s cards, candles and assorted knick-knacks which are displayed along the routes of their once-dreamy rambles. Romantic purists will undoubtedly appreciate the non-commercial origins of “lover’s day”, for though It Is now just another crepe paper and candy-coated product of Madison Avenue, it was once a very serious festival.