I grew up in a very Anglo-Catholic family. We were Anglican with the Catholic rituals, well those of the pre Vatican II days. On holidays we would trudge off to the local Anglo-Catholic mecca, be it St Peter’s Eastern Hill or Christ Church St Lawrence… Fish on Fridays in Lent, church attendance on all high days and holy days. These were usually saints days and I would usually be forced to be an altar girl (apparently I used to like it!) The main thing I remember about these days were the homilies on the saints. Some of these were pretty cool dudes and dudettes! Of course we never had services for the popular saints though- Valentine, Patrick and Cecilia.

What I find now as a born-again agnostic, or person with christian-ish values is that society has taken on saints like Valentine and Patrick and run with it. Apparently the Catholic church dropped them many years ago. But these saints continue to be the popular ones in society today. Is this the church being even more distant from sociey or society using old Christian traditions to make money?

At work I walk past the stupid teddy bears clutching hearts, or devils saying ‘Be Mine,’ or chocolates in heart shaped containers, or the most revolting velvet flowers that are meant to smell like roses and think pass the bucket. Then there are the cards. These come in around 3 categories. The first is the soppy ones that have pretty pictures on the, or sometimes just lots of hearts, that say how wonderful the other person is. Some of these are even in the traditional anonymous ‘Be Mine’ style. The second is the comedic one that basically revolves around sex. The third is the bizarre category- ones for or from pets, ones for ex-es (what the!) or even those that try to be funny and soppy at the same time.

Florists are also full of red (do red roses sell or simply die faster?), the local balloon shop is covered in helium love and even the local Auto Barn has something about getting the right thing for the one you love. Yep, a spanner and a few liters of oil should win the say to any girl’s heart.

Last year I was in the middle of a marriage break-up, but even before that he never got into Valentine’s Day. Don’t think I ever got flowers or a card from him. I do remember a memorable dinner at Stephano de Pieri’s restaurant in Mildura one Valentine’s, but that was more fluke than planning.

In High School we used to buy The Herald Sun on the way to school and all flock around the classifieds trying to work out if any of the messages were aimed at us. I remember seeing one to a Fiona from a Greg and thinking it must have been from the boy I liked at the time, until it mentioned the bit about the baby due soon and we soon realised it wasn’t me. Debbie got one though- hers had her surname. And she didn’t even like the guy! One year we almost put one in for the music teacher we all had a crush on, but someone refused to fork out their share and we didn’t have enough money.

Ah money! Valentine… Is there a connection? Well duh! But perhaps for some it is more than that. I never believed in Mother’s Day until I was a mother. Perhaps I will never believe in Valentine’s until I am in a ‘relationship’ but even then I don’t know if I could get doe eyed about it all.

Today at lunch one of the ladies was saying how her husband of some 35+ years always buys her lovely chocolates on Valentine’s Day. How sweet was the general consensus around the table. I mentioned I knew I was going to get a card. Of course they asked (and assumed and it was very interesting to hear their assumptions too!) and I told them that one of my best friends at school and I have been trading valentines almost every year since year 6- 1984. Makes me feel very old actually!

I had thought before lunch today that Valentine’s might just be for young ones. Those sending SMS messages instead of looking at The Herald Sun classifieds. Last year at work a number of young girls had roses delivered to them at work. But then again another older colleague had a massive bouquet delivered too. Is it just a day for the girls though? Am I ‘meh’ about the day because a lot of the gifts are aimed at women? I got my ex a number of Valentine’s gifts- red satin boxers he never wore, books he hid on the shelf (perhaps giving a vicar a how to sex guide was a bit out there…)

Commercial smercial! I don’t know if I am feeling this way because of a conditioned pattern around the day (never being the one showered with gifts) or because of my current situation, or if this is one and the same. Of course if you would like to test the theory, cards and presents (did someone say Bombay Sapphire?) can be sent to PO Box 809, Ealrville, Q 4870 and flowers delivered to Myer, Cairns Central might be able to convince me otherwise…

Tags: religion, Valentine's

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 11:06 pm and is filed under religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.