Development of Valentine’s Day
Roses lace ribbon in the florist quietly waiting for customers to choose. The well-packed chocolate gift boxes in the shop seem to sell well. In high-end restaurants, carefully dressed couples’ faces are illuminated by candles on the table. The waiter introduced the customized Valentine’s Day dinner to the customer with a delicate menu. A red heart was pierced by Cupid’s arrow on a giant LED display beside the square, followed by promotional advertisements in the shopping mall.
How did Valentine’s Day become what it is today? How did people celebrate Valentine’s Day in the past? This article will give you the answer.
19th Century: Consumer-centered Valentine’s Day
Starting with the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, the hierarchical identity society in Europe gradually collapsed. Since the 19th century, capitalism has swept across the West, and the bourgeoisie, as a new noble of the times, has stepped onto the stage of history. Social status is no longer based on family origin, but wealth becomes an important measure of class identity. In the nineteenth century, with the rise of commercial printing culture and the development of the postal system, publishers created a new custom for Valentine’s Day — sending Valentine’s Day cards.
Interestingly, the meaning of Valentine has also changed. Prior to the 19th century, Valentine meant a person or a particular social relationship (e.g., “my valentine”, “my lover”). By the 19th century, Valentine became a special commodity — beautifully framed Valentine’s Day cards, made of lace paper, or printed in stone. People can buy these cards, write emotional words on them, and send them to the other half. At that time, there was also a “love card” that can be folded into a wallet or cut. These love cards were made in hand. It can be seen as a “reaction” to the commercialisation of festivals: it was the large-scale commercialisation that has stimulated the emergence of these hand-made cards.
However, these manual cards were only a flash in the pan, and the Valentine’s Day market was soon replaced by mass-produced Valentine’s Day greeting cards. At the same time, Valentine’s Day brochures were flourishing for people to extract words and sentences. Not everyone can write such beautiful and moving sentences on cards, so such pamphlets came into being. You only need to copy the sentences on it and make some modifications, everyone can write brilliantly. So, these brochures are very popular in the market.
20th century: the rise of dating culture
Call your sweetheart and invite her to spend a wonderful afternoon with you. Get in your car, take her for a ride in the countryside, watch the latest Hollywood movie, and finally have a big meal. Such dating arrangements perhaps have become commonplace in the eyes of today’s middle-class readers. However, dating alone was unimaginable in the 19th century, especially in Victorian Britain. In Jane Austen’s novels, many of the heroes and heroines meet at family dances. In those days, salons and family gatherings were an important way for upper-middle class people to socialise. However, all this changed in the 20th century. The surge in the number of working class, technological progress and the development of consumer culture have completely changed the old ways of social life.
In the 1920s and 1930s, dating has become an important way for both working class and middle class to “fall in love”. Cinema has replaced theatre and opera house as the new favourite of urban civilians. Ballrooms are springing up all over American cities. In addition, restaurants are no longer the exclusive favourite of the rich. The emergence of fast food restaurants and cheap non-staple restaurants has diversified meals. In addition, advances in technology, especially the popularity of telephones and cars, have greatly promoted the development of dating culture.
The car creates a private space for the date, closes the date’s body distance and isolates the inside from the surroundings. It is like a mobile hotel, users can drive it to any road connected place, escape from daily life, escape from bound. Correspondingly, the emergence of a large number of motels had facilitated the search for “secret pleasure” among young people. The emergence of telephone made real-time communication possible. To ask a girl, you just need to dial her number to send an invitation. Unlike in the past, you might have to send an invitation card in advance, receive a reply and then go to an appointment. It should be said that the appearance of dating culture is closely related to the development of consumer market and culture. Without a consumer culture, there would be no dating.
21th century: romantic consumption ceremony
Faced with today’s Valentine’s Day, individuals in post-modern society have such or such expectations and helplessness. Whether you like it or not, today’s Valentine’s Day has become a ritual of consumption. On the one hand, you have to be a modern individual who knows the principle of “romance” well to get the favor of the opposite sex. You need to know how to express your feelings and desires in the most appropriate way at the right time. Otherwise, you’ll become a fool who can’t understand the customs. On the other hand, you have to buy without stint — no flowers, no gifts, no romantic dates, your Valentine’s Day will not be Valentine’s Day.
Often people complain that their Valentine’s Day celebrations are too routine and too “process-oriented”. “The same flowers and chocolates every year.” A friend of mine once said this to me. Such a complaint reflects the current ritualization of Valentine’s Day consumption. However, the other side of this complaint reflects the other cultural logic of consumerism — that is, modern individuals constantly keep “fresh” and “novel” experiences in their daily lives. But what is frustrating is that in contemporary cities, this kind of experience cannot be separated from the independent existence of consumption: we are chasing the latest style of mobile phones, clothing, the latest movies, the latest language. This kind of “anti-ritual” performance is precisely as a part of the “ritual” and came into being at the historic moment. In fact, the pursuit of “novelty” has become an important part of our consumer culture. As a social animal, violating the “ritual principle” is an extremely high social cost behavior. Crueler than “Valentine’s Day without your Valentine” is “Valentine’s Day without ritual consumption”.
