As with last year, I will be very honest about how I feel about Valentine’s Day. I am a Valentine’s Day Scrooge. I think it’s a Hallmark-created holiday full of needless obligation to buy needless things.
But that’s very negative and I don’t tend to be a negative person. So what do I prefer to focus on rather than Valentine’s Day? Two TV-created holidays that bookend Valentine’s Day.
These are Galentine’s Day and Anti-Valentine’s Day (which I’ve renamed Love Day because it’s happier). What are these exactly? Well, if you would like to shun Valentine’s Day and instead celebrate holidays coined by funny fictional characters rather than those based on a Saint who probably wasn’t thinking people would honor him by buying little teddy bears with hearts pinned to their bellies that say “I wub you,” then these two holidays are for you.
Galentine’s Day, February 13, 2018
During a 2010 episode of the great comedy, Parks and Recreation, the perpetual ray of bright sunshine and waffle-loving Leslie Knope decided it was time to celebrate something very important – friendship. She gathered together her best gal-friends for brunch and games. And thus Galentine’s Day was born.
“Every February 13, my ladyfriends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair, minus the angst. Plus frittatas.”
– Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation
The creators of Parks and Recreation may not have known their fictional holiday would become so popular, but it has. On February 13th Galentine’s Day memes flood Facebook and Twitter. (I’m a culprit. I think Galentine’s Day is a fantastic holiday.)
Of course, no holiday is complete without a book.
How about Be My Galentine: Celebrating Badass Female Friendship by
I have no idea if this book is any good, but the title fits pretty well and I like the description.
And if you’re looking for other bookish ways to celebrate Galentine’s Day Book Riot kindly provided a wonderful list of suggestions to give the best gals in your life, including some of my favorites, The Handmaid’s Tale and We Should All Be Feminists. Or check out this list from The Hub.
Yep, if you have to give a gift, it really should be a book. And if you’re just learning about Galentine’s Day, don’t worry. Like Valentine’s Day, you can celebrate it on a weekend if it falls on a weekday. I’m sure Leslie Knope would agree with me on that one. So call your friends get your plans ready for Saturday!
Anti-Valentine’s Day (or Love Day), February 15, 2018
Now, I’ve long turned my nose up at Valentine’s Day, not because I don’t think it’s a nice sentiment to tell people you love them, but because, like Christmas and many other holidays, it has become about things. And I have enough things. Thus spawned Love Day.
Technically, Love Day was coined by The Simpsons as a mockery of Valentine’s Day, which is why I love it. Based on the TV show conception, it’s supposed to be sometime in the summer (a holiday created by a corporation to make money in the dwindling summer sales market).
That said, I’ve co-opted the idea of Love Day, not as a mock marketing scam, but as an anti-marketing scam and moved it to the day after Valentine’s Day. It’s a day only my family celebrates. And by celebrate I mean we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day and joke about how much we love Love Day instead. And we tell each other we love each other. It’s kind of nice. (If you want to learn more about my conception of Love Day, check out my blog from last year on the topic.)
However, while my family may be the only one that calls February 15th Love Day, this anti-Valentine’s Day concept is not novel. There are countless Anti-Valentine’s Day sites and organizations and even anti-Valentine’s Day parties, cards, games, gifts.
This is a very funny wiki on how to celebrate anti-Valentine’s Day.
Of course, there are also anti-Valentine’s Day book lists, including
- Goodread’s Popular Anti Valentine Books
- Quirk Book’s Anti-Valentine’s Day Books for the Brokenhearted
- Reader’s Lane More Anti-Valentine’s Day Books
- And my own, K.L. Kranes, Go Rogue on Valentine’s Day
Whether you choose to adopt the simple celebration of Love Day or the more seemingly aggressive approach of anti-Valentine’s Day, just know you don’t have to do what everyone else does and be a traditional celebrator of Valentine’s Day. There are other options for those of us who dare to be different!
And, from now on, I’m only celebrating holiday’s created by fictional TV characters. Bring on Festivus!
February 13, 2018 at 8:11 pm
hehehe this is so fun!! First Galentine’s day is a cool concept! But I love the sound of love day even more! (bit random but it reminds me of Festivus- aka a “festivas for the rest of us” from Seinfeld, which is like a weird alternate Christmas)
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February 13, 2018 at 8:52 pm
I love Festivus! Or Festivas, I have no idea how you spell it. But I agree. I think all holidays I celebrate now will have the requirement of being the brainchild of some TV writer. Those seem to be all the good ones!
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February 13, 2018 at 10:45 pm
hahaha yes, I don’t know either, but I love it too! Yes!! LOL!
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February 14, 2018 at 9:35 am
I keep hearing that the average spent on V-day gifts is $150. With so many of us buying nothing, that means there are lots of people out there spending >$300 on flowers, cards, chocolates, jewelry, etc. It’s a world gone mad.
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February 14, 2018 at 10:38 am
It is. Then if you go out to a nice dinner, another several hundred dollars! Also, if you’re a kid you have to bring Valentine’s to school. It’s forced participation in a holiday. If you sit back and think about it, it really is very odd behavior.
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February 14, 2018 at 11:05 am
Of course, dinner. And I remember the tiresome disappointment of prepping valentines for ALL my classmates (Mom insisted), and then getting only 5 or 6 in return. Every year. All I learned was whose Mom was a stickler for manners.
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