Let Love Find You Every Day
Why is Valentine’s day the most stupid celebration? If you’ve found love, you’re lucky so there is no need to devote a day to brag about it. If you haven’t found love, it is just an irritating reminder. Why do we need a day to highlight what we don’t have? If you have a Valentine but are not really “into” the relationship, well, then this day can cause all sorts of unwanted expectations. Any way you look at it, Valentine’s Day is a useless celebration.
So how did Valentine’s day start in the first place? Back in 496, it was a Roman festival, called Lupercalia. This mid-February festival, celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery. Ok, let’s stop there. While I appreciate the historic significance, how logical or even ethical is having “fertility rites” and pairing off women with men by lottery? By lottery! That doesn’t sound like love to me. It sounds like a lot of sex was going on, so if we’re going to define love as sex, then Valentine’s day should be called Tinder Day.
Maybe we should spend the day reflecting on our relationships. The people we care about, the people we don’t, and the people we wish would care more about us. Let’s take a look at how we are all connecting with each other in 2020. We love connecting with people on our screens. Deep down we know that connecting through pictures, “likes”, and comments is a bit … shallow. Shallow is easy and we’re content with that (with most people). Unless of course, we want better relationships and a meaningful community.
Here is the thing, though it is a bit old fashion, there is really no short cut to getting to know people without spending time with them face-to-face. However, there is finally a short cut on how to find the right people to spend time with. Festi is a new kind of network that lets us share experiences instead of pictures. And I am not talking about Tinder type of “experiences”. You can post and book activities (think coffee, lunch, bike rides, dinner…) so you can connect face to face- faster and easier. These connections lead to stronger relationships with the right people.
While we’ve come a long way from the origins of Valentine's festivities, we still want to connect with people. Technology has been great helping us connect on-screen, now we can start using technology to connect in real life, with close friends, new friends, and everyone in between. Just maybe, sharing real life could be a real cupid in 2020. — Rita Ting-Hopper Founder Festionline.com
