I actually told someone yesterday that I don’t celebrate St. Valentine’s Day because “it’s a religious holiday.” I was only partly serious – Valentinus was just a name in a list compiled in the early years of church history, and the traditions that we associate with the holiday today may have been invented out of whole cloth by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th Century. So in addition to being a tribute to romantic love, it may also be traditional to tell lies today.
At least that’s how I see it. Your views may differ.
Tracy says she used my joke about the Single Person’s Bermuda Triangle of holidays: Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and Valentine’s Day. I can’t take complete credit for that joke but I don’t remember where I heard it first. For me, New Year’s Eve has always seemed more “romantic” than Valentine’s Day. Romantic movies almost never have their climax set on a day in February, but how often do the romantic leads finally get together on New Year’s Eve? Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal did. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks did. Apparently both Nora Ephron and myself see things the same way.
Nora, if you’re not doing anything tonight, contact me.
In any case, I prefer non-traditional celebrations, so even though my family knows I love them, and even though my female friends all know I love them, this one is goin’ out to my guy friends.
In a manly way.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF6rSGfUdyg]