With the exception being when I was a little kid and we would all exchange little letters with our classmates back in the 80's, I have always kind of loathed this holiday and as I am sure most people would agree, it is mostly just a commercialized date designed to encourage consumerism (and for the most part it works.) Over here in Vietnam it isn't even really celebrated as far as I can tell and to that I have to say well done Vietnam.
Of course the reason it isn't celebrated this year could be because the day falls so close to Tet, which is the most important and popular holiday of the year in this country.
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For many of you it isn't even the 14th yet but that is because I live in the future and am much closer to the International Date Line than most of you but I will not be celebrating it this year. A very big part of the reason why I won't be celebrating it this year is because I am single - and it's my understanding that is chocolates are bad for dogs so I don't have anyone to buy something for anyway.
I wasn't single for all of the V-days prior to this one though and at least for the past 6 years (where I wasn't single) me and my girlfriend at the time decided we were not going to celebrate it then either. She was a very sensible person and saw the date for the same thing that I did: An opportunity for businesses to charge more than they normally would because you are basically forced to go out to dinner somewhere fancy.
Instead, we would go out to eat someplace fancy on just some other day. Or if you want to get someone some sort of romantic gift, doing it on just some random day is more special (I think) than when you do it on some sort of societally-dictated mandatory day. Boxes of chocolates are sold year-round after all.
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The real story behind Valentine's Day is kind of the opposite of anything loving, since it was originally a date set aside to celebrate the decapitation of a Christian Martyr who was ordered executed along with a bunch of people that he baptised.
Sounds like a good reason to get some candy and flowers now doesn't it?
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Of course this is just the Catholic interpretation of the day, there are a lot of theories out there about why the day is celebrated but the fact of the matter is that most of these reasons have nothing to do with taking your spouse out to dinner. That happened slowly over time and now it has become what I call a "Hallmark" holiday even though I don't think very many people buy cards anymore (are they still a company?)
I do have a bottle of champagne in my refrigerator that I won in a bowling contest, but honestly, it is likely to stay in there to celebrate something a bit more meaningful such as when my next 1-year visa gets approved. I'm not really a fan of cheap bubbly anyway and this brand is definitely that.
If you have V-day plans and you and your partner are pleased to do stuff like that then know that I do not think ill of you, it's just not for me and I am one of those people that hates wasting money, no matter what it is on. So the fact that I am partnerless this year doesn't have as much to do with it as you might think. I'm single by my own choice after-all and even if I was with someone I would probably not celebrate it, or if having that attitude was going to get me in trouble I would begrudgingly go out to dinner... which is something I do most days anyway.