Thread by @cirnosad

Every a year a day comes up and upsets people, makes them feel alone & unwanted... brings back sad memories.
St. Valentine's Day.

If you can relate to this, I've written this thread for you.
You shouldn't be unhappy at all. Let me explain.
/🧵

... But first, we have to go through a history lesson about St. Valentine's Day! Don't worry, it will only take 30 seconds or so.

St. Valentine's Day was originally a weird roman ritual called Lupercalia which was actually a 3 day event between February 13th and 15th.

What was this ritual? It involved a festival of single men (between the age 20-40) and women (unwedded, presumably virgins). The men slaughtered two animals then ran around with their skin. The women would then deliberately get in their way and get flogged with the animal's skin.

I know it sounds strange, but the underlying intent was to get unwedded people to pair up together with this ridiculous ritual! The romans made sure a huge amount of alcohol was available to both on-lookers and participants.
Also the women getting in the way was showing interest!

In other parts of Rome, they would take a more "modern" approach, pairing up people randomly (through drawing of names), and letting them spend their time together through the festival.

Presumably, if they end up liking each other they would pair up.

In any case the Romans package this up as a magical ritual that "increased fertility" and "made child birth more bearable", as well as a means to "purge the evil".

They just wanted to give unwedded men and women a means to meet each other and show interest in an indirect manner!

As historical aside, the cloth the men would wear (made from the slaughtered animal), was called a Februa. This predated the name February, and in fact the month was named after it. Now you know why!

This was all later seen as a pagan ritual by the church and reformulated...

As it were, the Romans unfortunately executed St. Valentine in the middle of such a festival, on the 14th of February, 269 AD.
Pope Gelasius the 1st used this day to observe his martyrdom.
And so, it remained until the 14th-15th century when the cancer of courtly love sprouted...

As an interesting note, romantic/courtly love itself was imported all the way from the Muslim world, via the Philosopher Avicenna. He was also known as the "philosopher of love". His material contained gnostic-like interpretation of souls, where love was central to life itself.

And thus we return to Europe, namely France. Around the 14th century, a bunch of simps called the chivalry knights appeared. You see, these cucks vied for women's attention in order to elevate themselves above the nobility of society and secure a women of strong standings.

This concept then spread from France to England. It spread even more rapidly thanks to the works of Shakespeare which directly attacked the old concept of love, binding families together.

Romeo and Juliet being a story opposed to this "old notion".
aish.com/was-shakespear…

By the middle of the 18th century, romantic love became the norm. In the year 1850 it had peaked and inverted all prior notions!
Valuable men had to court a single woman and compete with other men for her attention, instead of the other way around.

But it didn't end there.

With the notion of romantic love being dominant, the idea of using a festival to bring men and women together faded away too.
Instead,Valentine's day became a day for men to show their passion for a woman they are either interested in, or are already wedded to. Infinite chivalry!

One lie begets another.
One deceit begets more deception.
And an inverted world is doomed to die!

The original ritual, was meant to bring people together.
Today it makes people who are alone feel even more alone.
It makes those together question their love for each other.

Borne through the death of real love (bound by families), society has decayed and people are more alone than ever on Valentine's day. This actually leads many to ropemaxx through the weeks following this day. On the day itself rates are 30% higher!
cityonahillpress.com/2013/02/08/the…

The news doesn't get any better for people who are together. Valentine's day, as formulated today, leads to couples questioning their love for each other, being forced to display it through materialistic means.
Also, ~19% of breakups happen on this day!
psychologytoday.com/au/blog/why-ba…

But it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, one country took a unique spin on Valentine's day and somewhat restored the old intent: Japan 🇯🇵.
On this day, a Japanese girl makes chocolate candy and gives it to the boy[s] she likes without any expected action from either party.

This is an clear signal that a boy cannot misinterpret. And should they not feel interested, there is no loss to the girl. It's a festive ritual and though the signal is clear, it can be private too leaving behind no anguish/anxiety.

At the very least friendship can follow.

[But for real, if a girl gets you chocolates on this day, and you also like her, and you're both untainted, you should totally give it a go and become a couple. Don't be a baka like I was/still am and act all oblivious to such gestures!]

[Aside: femn*zis in Japan were upset at this "asymmetry" and invented "White Day" in collaboration with chocolate merchants.
It didn't really take off and died in the 2010s because the Valentine's Day chocolate festival itself declined so much as yin and yang were broken.]

So this brings us to today. And you. Don't be upset at yourself, be upset at society for inverting everything. For taking away this day which was meant for those who are uncoupled and turned it into some masochistic ritual for simps.

Instead, let's take our festival day back!

If approaching people you know and giving them a sign, with no obligation on either party, can be renormalised (without the horrors that exist today, e.g. #MeToo etc.), people won't be breaking up on this day or ropemaxxing.
In current conditions, girls must take the initiative.

Making a box of chocolate sounds difficult, but that's Japan, maybe we can give it our own online spin.
Be creative and think on it, and always remember that these festivals left neither party with obligations nor anguish.
How do we restore what was? Let me know in the comments.

I don't expect this thread to kill off romantic delusion (I think these delusions will kill off our nations instead, lol).
This is all for you my oomfies. Think about what this day used to be about and make it something you look forward to by spreading the word.
💙
/End