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情人節 成為商人A錢的日子
How did Valentine's Day become a huge commercial boom?
Gerren Keith Gaynor
Valentine's Day Origins: From Cupid to Chaucer
Valentine's Day Origins: Fox News spoke to expert Nikki Lewis who deals with love year-round to learn more about the heart-filled holiday. Lewis is co-founder of the BEVY, a bespoke matchmaking service located in New York and California, and explained that while the theories surrounding Valentine’s Day are murky, the stories behind them help contribute to the February 14th holiday that we celebrate today.
Every year for Valentine’s Day, lovers around the world pull out all the stops for their sweetheart.
From the traditional flowers and chocolate to more expensive gifts such as diamonds, the holiday is just as much about spending your hard-earned cash as it is about love.
In fact, this year consumers are anticipated to spend an average of $196.31 and a record total of $27.4 billion, according to data released by the National Retail Federation (NRF).
So if you’re feeling the pressure to get your significant other the perfect gift for V-Day, it’s likely because the commercialization of the holiday is by capitalist design.
“Commerce rather than ethnicity would be the creative and guiding hand in the holiday’s American rebirth,” Schmidt wrote. “When merchants rediscovered the [holiday], the former transformed the latter, not vice versa, as a merchants systematically extended the apparatus of the market into the realm of celebration.”
While companies may not have created the holiday and some of its traditions, they have certainly capitalized on it. Fast forward to the present day and we can expect to see companies rolling in the dough, as the number of Americans expected to celebrate this year has increased to 55 percent from 51 percent last year.
Department stores are the most popular Valentine’s Day shopping destination, and they are visited by 36 percent of shoppers, the NRF reports. Thirty-two percent of shoppers are expected to seek business at discount and online stores, while 19 percent at specialty stores, 17 percent at florists, 15 percent at local small businesses, and clothing stores and jewelry shops are tied with 11 percent of shoppers.
So while Valentine’s Day may be a traditional holiday about romance, there’s nothing accidental about its tendency to hit your pockets. Love may be free, but Valentine’s Day as we know it? Not so much.
Valentine's Day is yet another commercialized holiday dailytargum
Valentine’s Day, like all modern holidays, has become a widely commercialized holiday, with the average amount spent on gifts increasing by $60 over the past decade.
Monetized love is an old concept.
Anything that humans desire will be commercialized, as hijacking things that people want dearly will always lead to high profits, with love and intimacy being no exception. Online dating sites are another example of this, with many services either displaying advertisements or requiring a subscription to use.
Commercialization took root in America in the 1840s, and now even those not romantically involved can take part in the holiday via “anti-valentine” merchandise, according to Big Think.
“In the 1840s, an American newspaper called The Public Ledger endorsed the holiday saying that people needed ‘more soul-play and less head-work’ and more opportunities that allowed for an ‘abandon of feeling.’ The meaning of ’valentine’ transformed from signifying a person to referring to an object of exchange,” according to the article.
Still, there are pros and cons that come with the dilution of a holiday with such rosy roots.
Many fundraising efforts are based around holidays and Valentine’s Day is no exception. Groups, organizations and charities jump on the holiday to infiltrate the emotions of potential donors, using the special day to reach deeper into the wallets of those they request money from.
We are not arguing that fundraising — assuming the organization in question is using the money correctly — is ever a bad thing, or that these groups are somehow corrupt for using holidays to raise funds. It does say something about society as a whole, though, that groups feel a need to exploit holidays for this money. Why are people not generous at all times?
Dialing it in to the minutiae of relationships, which Valentine’s Day is based around, the average American spending $60 more this decade is a sign of multiple problems.
This is due in part to the rampant commercial system instituted in America. This is a system which is based heavily around advertising and injecting propaganda into the mind of the consumer, essentially taking advantage of them.
“ … the marketing machines of many companies turned their wheels to lure more and more customers into celebrating the holiday and convince them to purchase valentines — in the forms of cards, chocolates, flowers and jewelry — for their loved ones. Nowadays, even for the noncelebrating or single individual, there is plenty of anti-Valentine merchandise to go around,” according to the article.
There is also an old trope that some couples only express their love on certain days of the year — birthdays, anniversaries and, of course, Valentine’s Day — and it is true in a sense. Through the mundanity of everyday life, many couples get lost in their daily grinds and do not show their affection as much as they should.
This is not only applicable to romantic pairings, but also to any human relationship. Valentines can be sent out to friends, family and more, but why do we feel such a need to go above and beyond on this one day of the year?
Because we do not express these emotions throughout it. If we did, the need to extravagantly display our feelings would not come to fruition in the first place, and the holiday’s commercialization would not be as bloated as it is.
We are not arguing that displaying love through gifts is wrong in anyway, or that fundraising should not be done around the holidays.
What the point really boils down to is this: We should not feel the need to ever go above and beyond when displaying our common humanity — whether that be in a romantic pairing or at a fundraiser — because we should be going above and beyond all the time.
If we all pulled together to show how much we all mean to each other, the commercialization of holidays would not be a problem.
It is an idealized view of the situation, but if not for ideals, what would we have to aspire to? In addition to showing your love for others — or your lack of it — this Valentine’s Day, take some time to reflect on how you could let those around you, particularly the less fortunate, know that you care.
有願望 就有力量!
Where There is a Will There is a Way toppr.com
Where there is a will there is a way is one of the most used proverbs to date. This proverb has a lot of meaning when we come to think of it. Its essential meaning is that if you set your mind to do something, you can easily do it. In other words, it shows us the importance of will power and how it can bring a change in someone’s life. Will power is the desire to achieve something. If you have the will power to do something, then nothing can stop you from doing so. This proverb is equally applicable in almost all aspects of life. Similarly, it holds utmost importance in various ways.
Where There’s A Will There’s A Way! You Can Make Your Success Happen!
Heidi Gottlieb
I grew up hearing my Mom often saying, “Where there’s a Will, there’s a way”. I’ve passed that expression onto my own kids, and I’m pretty sure they’ll pass it down to their kids when they have them. I was saying those words before I even really thought about them or knew what they meant. We hear about will often, but we don’t think too much about what that is; it’s the power of control the mind has over its actions. The irony about those words, “Where there’s a Will, there’s a way”, is after I got to be old enough to understand them, I realized that as empowering as they were then…as they are now, and as they can be to whomever I say them to, is what ultimately you choose to do with those words.
As frequent as my Mom expressed what seemed like that childhood mantra to me, it didn’t seem to fuel her the way it has fueled me. It is in the end, like everything else in life-what we do with what we been given. Regardless of the fact that my Mom continually repeated those amazing words, she may not have embraced them in the same way. She did me the tremendous favor however of sharing those words.
Having the concept of “Where there’s a Will, there’s a way” in my mind has gotten me through some very trying times. Your thoughts determine your actions, which determines your outcomes. This is why it’s so important for us to think positive thoughts about ourselves. If you notice yourself thinking negative thoughts, it’s essential that you let go of those thoughts and replace them with empowering positive thoughts. You need to think of yourself as a winner, your doing this has a snowball effect. Once you tell yourself the possibility of life and the pursuit of happiness, you will attract other positive people with positive thoughts and the percentage of positive things is more likely to occur.
We have choices in life. Yes, things do happen, but there are ways to look at things. Why not choose to think that things will turn out to the better side because you possess the ability to make it happen?
“Those who say things can’t be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it”
Here’s a kick-starter to begin getting your Will going:
I can do it
I know there is a solution
I am smart enough and strong enough to figure this out
I know what I’m talking about
It doesn’t matter if I fail – what matters is that I TRY
I am loveable and capable
I create anything I want
I am able to solve any problem that comes my way
I can handle anything that life hands me
I have all the energy I need to do everything I want to do
I am attracting all the right people into my life
I see all the possibilities in my life
I release myself from anger
I choose to see each obstacle as an opportunity to grow
I make a difference in the world
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