As longtime readers know, Valentine’s Day is my least favorite of holidays, and I’m not particularly fond of the typical iconography associated with it, either (which is often weird or violent or creepy as hell). So every year I try to share an exception, like this cute little pussy (shut up) with a direct, understated message that isn’t an awful pun.
Valentine’s Day 2018
February 14, 2018 by Maggie McNeill
My interest in this holiday begins and ends with the discounted candies that go on sale tomorrow.
It’s my sister’s birthday. That’s all it’s ever really meant to me, outside of the boxes we’d construct and give out tiny cards in elementary school.
Love the creepy Valentine links.
If you’re not so fond of Valentine’s day, celebrations of the day are banned in Saudi Arabia, and in much of Malaysia. But I don’t think you’d like either of those places.
In India, various nationalist groups and political parties have declared Valentine’s day to be “western imperialism and neocolonialism”.
On the other hand, Japan has adopted and adapted celebrations of the day since 1936, in the offbeat commercial ways that Japanese culture is famous for. This time, the adaptation was probably based on a translation error. Women give chocolate to men on Valentine’s day. It’s known as giri-choko, “obligation chocolate”, or honmei-choco, “love chocolate”.
Since the 1980s, a new day, one month later in March, is designated “white day” or “reply day”. Men “reply” to the women who gave them chocolate gifts on Valentine’s day, with “white” gifts such as marshmallows, white chocolate, and lingerie.
Go figure.