02/06/2022
All-in-tine’s Day
We encourage you to use this time to acknowledge different kinds of love in our lives. We’re calling it “All-in-tine’s” Day, to capture those micro moments of love and celebrate all its manifestations.
The truth is, Valentine’s Day was originally closer to the spirit of a Valentine’s Day for everyone. While the holiday appears to have begun with one or more Christian martyrs named St. Valentine who lived around 270 AD, it didn’t emerge as a romantic holiday until about the 14th century; some attribute it to Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem "The Parlement of Foules", which connected the day with romance.
People first started exchanging cards around this time. However, the cards were not limited to couples. Some historians say that Valentine’s Day cards emerged from the German tradition of friendship cards (Freundschaftskarten) that friends exchanged on New Year’s Day, birthdays, and other anniversaries.
“If you read St. Valentine, he seemed to appreciate a broader sense of sharing love,” says Richard Beltramini, Ph.D., co-editor of Gift Giving: A Research Anthology.
All In for All-in-tine’s Day
There are endless people and ways to love. Don’t limit your celebrations to your romantic partner like your wife, husband, partner, or fiancée. Remember the preeminent love of your children. And the fraternal and maternal love for a mom, a dad, stepdad, or stepmom. There’s grand love for grandmothers and grandfathers, not to mention brotherly and sisterly love. And platonic love of friends, acquaintances, co-workers. Neighborly love. Protective love. Love of pets. The list goes on and on!
So, this year, join us in celebrating All-in-tine’s Day and recognize everyone you love romantically and otherwise. You can buy flowers, of course, send a card, make your own card, or just send a text, email or make a phone call to convey best wishes on Feb. 14 to all those who mean something to you.
