Valentine’s Day is commonly seen as a day just for those in romantic relationships, and can be sort of a sad day for single people. Someone’s lack of a significant other can feel inflated by cheesy, lovey-dovey ads for romantic gifts and cheap chocolate. Some research even suggests mental illness and suicide peak on and around the Valentine’s Day season. It is hard to feel loved when only one type of love is portrayed on this day.

The holiday itself is rooted in greeting cards and marketing schemes, so I think it’s due time for Valentine’s Day to be revamped into a more celebratory, empowering, gratitude-and-love-filled day for everyone. 

To avoid dreading the day of love, a popular trend has arisen where women get together with their friends and call it “Galentine’s Day,” as featured in the NBC hit TV show “Parks and Recreation.” Some groups have begun celebrating “Malentine’s Day,” the male equivalent, but that trend has yet to take off. 

While celebrating the love one has for their friends is wonderful, think of all of your loved ones and the love you share with them. There are so many different connections one has with the people around them, and celebrating a day of love with only a few of your loved ones because you share the stereotypically celebrated type of love with them seems archaic and neglectful to the rest of the relationships you have. 

The love you have for your friends is different from the love you have for your significant other, so I think on a holiday about celebrating love, all types of love should be celebrated. 

Greek Philosophy describes 6 types of love: “agape, eros, philia, storge, philautia, and xenia,” (wikipedia.org)

All of these types of love are important to understanding the different connections we have with the world around us. 

I think Valentine’s Day is the perfect opportunity to appreciate and celebrate all of the types of love you share with those around you. Yes, go to dinner with your significant other, but you could also send a parent a card telling them how much you love them. You could donate to charity to satisfy your xenia connections. You could even buy yourself a gift to express philautia to yourself. 

Cupid doesn’t have to be a pain in your butt this Valentine’s Day, because you can use this opportunity to express all the different types of love to all the different people you have any type of relationship with. I challenge you to come up with a way to satisfy as many types of love you share with the people around you that you can this Valentine’s Day.