Wikipedia defines Valentine’s Day as a day to celebrate love and affection between intimate companions by sending flowers, candy and/or cards.  Through the years, I think the “intimate companions” has fallen out of the definition. Today, many people send flowers, candy and/or cards to not only intimate companions but also close friends and relatives.  But no matter who the recipient is, the message is still the same: “Because you are important in my life, I would like for you to please be my valentine”. 

What would happen if we celebrated this tradition on other days of the year?  Just as Alice in Wonderland celebrated an “Un-Birthday”, I think we should celebrate an “Un-Valentine’s Day”.  This day would be a day when we send flowers to our mothers, daughters and sweethearts because we were thinking of them, or a day when we put a note or a card in our child’s lunch box because we wanted them to know that we think of them during the day, or a day when we gave chocolates to our best friend just because they are our best friend and we want them to know how much we value their friendship. The Un-Valentine’s Day would be whenever you decided it would be and it could be as often as you wanted it to be. The day would not be dictated by the calendar, but instead by your feelings.  I don’t know about you but I would rather receive something from someone because they wanted to send it and not because they felt obligated to.

So, let’s start a new tradition!  Happy Un-Valentine’s Day!