Valentine’s Day, also known as Saint Valentine’s Day, began in 498 A.D., which started as an official holiday that the Catholic church later removed from the holy calendar because no one knew the story. It started with St. Valentine, he was a priest who went against the Roman Emperor Claudius II, who made it illegal for young men to get married because he wanted them to fight in war for him. St. Valentine went against this law and secretly married young couples because he loved love and did not agree with Claudius. Eventually, he was caught and thrown in jail. While awaiting his execution, which was set for Feb. 14, his daughter would come visit him. On his execution day, he sent a note to her saying “from your Valentine”.

Looking at how St. Valentine’s Day was celebrated back then with a huge feast, to how it is celebrated now, it is overrated because no one knows the real meaning behind it anymore. People just use it as an excuse to buy expensive gifts and go to expensive restaurants and spend all their money on their significant other.

Senior Mikayla Hildebrandt said, “You shouldn’t have a specific day to tell somebody that you love them. All of the hype over it is way too much for me. You walk all over, and there’s like hearts and cupid and I honestly don’t care.”

The meaning of Valentine’s day has evolved a lot over the years. It started out by celebrating St. Valentine and his love for love, but now it mainly revolves around chocolate and flowers. According to history.com, 150 million Valentine’s cards and gifts are sent each year.

Senior Brittney Carter said, “Valentine’s day is basically an excuse to spoil your significant other and show this abundance amount of love, and like really, you should show it all the time, not this specific day.”

For some people, it spreads a lot of love, but not everyone has a Valentine, therefore it might be spreading sadness to some. The people who do not have a Valentine feel obligated to get one, and spread love that really is not there. About 62 percent of adults claim to celebrate Valentine’s Day, and here at Stillwater, 61 percent of students claim to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

“People want candy, and want to spread love, but it spreads sadness for some people instead,” junior Maddie Blonski said.

According to history.com, 23 percent of adults buy flowers on Valentine’s Day, 39 percent of these are women, and 61 percent of these are men. People feel obligated to spend their money for this holiday that is not even a real holiday.

“You don’t need a special day to tell them that you love them, you should just do that anyway, because you want to. And there’s so much pressure, you’re like ‘oh I have to get this person something, because if I don’t, they’re going to assume I don’t like them or whatever’. Or you’re going to feel obligated to have a date, even if you’re not dating anyone,” Hildebrandt said.

Another reason why it has become too overrated is because it’s too commercialized. People feel obligated to go out and spend a ton of money on someone they have been dating for two months, and think they are in love with. About 448 million dollars is spent on candy the week before Feb. 14.

Carter said, “It’s a big old business scheme to get people to spend money on stupid things. It’s either candy that’s going to get eaten right away, flowers that are going to die right away, or some bear that’s going to sit in the corner of your room and get all dusty because all you’re going to do is stare at it and not do anything with it.”