The Wake

Online dating services reek of the information age. It seems almost impossible that they existed before people were too busy to leave the office for lunch let alone find a lover. Dating services have been around in one form or another (women didn’t always have it so good) for centuries.

During the Roman Feast of Lupercalia, a pagan festival that celebrated the gods of marriage and religion, the Romans held a date lottery. The women would place love notes into a large vessel and then the men would pick one out. Whomever’s love note the man chose would become the object of his affection.

The date of this festival: February 14th. Obviously, Valentine’s Day has come a long way since its inception during early Roman times.

Today greeting card companies sell more than $9 million in valentines. Add in all of the money people spend on flowers, chocolates and jewelry for their sweethearts and you have an industry so large it would rival a small country’s GNP (Gross National Product.)

In Dinkytown the owner of Avalon Campus Cards says Valentine’s Day is their second biggest season next to Christmas and that February 14 is their highest volume day.

It seems like some people are reaping the benefits of the holiday celebrating love.

When asked why she likes Valentine’s university sophomore Cindy Tschautscher responds “you get spoiled by the person who loves you.”

While many still revel in the anticipation of Valentine’s Day, others find the holiday too commercialized and ridiculous.

Googling “Valentine’s Day sucks” brings up pages of sites, many of them blogs, devoted to anti-valentine supporters. One had a particularl message against the day associated with cupid.

“It’s enough to make a free thinking individual want to gouge his own eyeballs out with an old rusty pair of scissors,” Leigh “Fuck Hallmark” Orf writes on his Web site.

Orf has provided other Valentine’s Day haters with a way to survive the holiday. Suggestions include to “firebomb all of the Hallmark card shops you can find” and declare February 14th a day of hate.

There are plenty of others who oppose Valentine’s Day, but many take a much less extreme stance than Orf.

University sophomore Amy Dvergsdal says the holiday was more fun as a little kid.

“I think it started out as a nice idea, sharing Valentine’s Day with someone you love, but I think it’s really kind of stupid now because there is so much pressure now. If you are dating someone you have to get them a present. If you are not dating somebody you have to be up-in arms over Valentine’s—so many people have so much hatred for it,” Dvergsdal says.

First year chemistry grad student Aaron Burns, says Valentine’s Day sucked in high school, but now he doesn’t really think about it.

“You’re asking chemists, I don’t think we think about Valentine’s Day.”

Tschautscher’s brother Craig had a similar view of the day.

“It’s just another day,” Tschautscher says.