I have at least 30 cousins... just from my mom's side

it makes family reunions.... interesting to say the least

It's not a christian holiday, its a roman holiday!



Now what could be more romantic than running through the streets covered in blood and whipping random strangers? Gotta love those Romans.

I prefer this later development though:


Really, just because a celebration of the ancient world finds its way into modern religions, doesn't necessarily make it exclusively a religious holiday. I understand your reluctance, but I think Valentine's day is going a bit far.

My mom is from a family of 11 and my dad is from a family of 5. Several of my mom's sisters have 4-5 kids. I have like 40 cousins. No jokes.

I have 72 if you include both sides of my family.

My great-great grandparents had 14 kids, my great grandparents had 7 my grandparents had 3 and my parents have 1. It kinda progresses to less as people dont want to have as many children and/or as technology improves and people take on more responcibilities.

Edit: Valintines day is just another day to me, usually I cant do anything due to school or Im not with anyone. Ive only twice celebrated Valintines day with my boyfriend and this past one was the third one weve been together.

My father has 7 siblings, my mother just has a brother. They had 3 kids, amongst which I'm included...

I think I'd want to have 3 too if I ever marry, heh.

Feb 15th != Feb 14th

Its very common for many Christain holidays to have pagan and roman holidays that were close to it but not exactly it. Afterall, its called St. Valentine's day, not Love day. However, if you are correct and its a Roman holiday, then thats even MORE of a reason to not celebrate it. Christain > Pagan as far as holidays go.

ON page 2 I think I posted the link of a website that says ways in which christains should celebrate St. Valentine's day. Also note that a few years ago, the Catholic Church stopped considering it a holiday. Also, the family of one of my teachers from 1st grade had 18 children, and one of his kids had 12. You should see thier house!

What is wrong with Celebrating Pagan Holidays! Stop oppressing my right to celebrate a holiday I know nothing about! How dare you tell me what is best and what is not best to Celebrate! Who do you think you are!


Help! Help! I am being oppressed!

meh, I just said -I- don't celebrate them... sheesh!

LOL. Monty Python>all.

Most so called christian or catholic holidays come from older than dust traditions in Europe, like easter being the spring celebration and probably st. valentin being yet another start of spring-loveseason festivities.

Right now, they're not much more than comercial holidays, and I very much doubt all those celebrating St. Valentin do it due to its religious origins, but just for the sake of having a specifically set day to show love to their loved ones.

Otherwise we should be asking ourselves what does catholic religion think of an unmarried couple having fun all around without somebody to watch over them

Daganev is being his usual self, I wonder why you still get surprised. Probably following his ideas atheists have no right to have holidays (because mostly if not all european holidays have an origin in one religion or the other, even if we're talking about greeks or romans or wild tribes) and should work 100% of the time and never have anything to celebrate

and I thought I had it bad heh, but.. I only have 3 cousins from my dad's side while I have at least 30 from my mom's

Look, I don't care if you don't understand my belief system.. however.. You have NO RIGHT to mock it.

If someone is an Athiest, then they can celebrate whatever the hell they want..

However, I as a Jewish person have enough of my own holidays that have actual meaning to them that I don't need to waste my time celebrating holidays that have no meaning to me, and come from orgins that generally caused much hatred and death to my family.

I get to celebrate my 'love day' during a different time of the year, where it actually has meaning beyond getting little candies, so why should I be forced to pretend that I care at all about some Christain/roman/secular holiday?




So I'm planning my wedding, and I find out that my fiance has 150 releatives from South Africa that are DIRECTLY related to her... (i.e aunt, uncle, grandparent, niece, nephew, and cousin... not including second cousins or the like)

My family on the other had has about 25.... *faint*

How do you a measure what a certain holiday means to someone? How do you judge what has meaning and what doesn't.

Christmas has 23 EU's (emotional units)
Halloween has 5
Yom Kippur has 100 EU's?
Kwanza has 50 EU's?

I am just.. not understanding why you are judging the meaning of holidays by your own personal outlook. Meaning is applied individually and while you have an opinion on what holiday is more important. It doesn't mean it applies to everyone. Hell Groundhogs day is more special to me than a few other holidays.


If you don't want to Celebrate certain holidays then don't celebrate them. No reason to bash them though. Just ignore them.

My birthday: 101 EU

I don't mean emotional meaning, I mean intelectual meaning.

On holidays I tend to learn about the orgins of the holiday, and how its changed over the years, and what messages the holiday has to me, today. i.e.. What does this Holiday mean?

I'm not bashing anyone's holiday... I'm getting accused of bashing something because I said that I don't follow it because of its orgins.

I thought that perhaps Valentin'es day had meaning, and that it is a christain holiday.. What I have been told on these forums is that I was wrong, and its a meaningles holiday made by greeting card companies. If I'm mistaken again, and it -does- have meaning.. well then, I'm back to my original point about its religous orgins.

I don't think I should be forced to defend why I don't wish to celebrate holidays from cultures that are not my own.

I've just been re-reading Chaucer's Parliament of Fowles. It contains one of the earliest references to St. Valentine's day as a feast day for lovers.. and it was written some time in the late 14th century.

Edit: I should mention. I substituted this post for an earlier post that I decided it was probably inappropriate to make. Hence, Daganev's post after this one.. actually comes from before this one.

A holiday that is celebrated because "its always been celebrated, and we don't know why we do it" has no meaning. A holiday that was established for a reason, and that reason is still why its practiced, has deep meaning. A holiday that was established for a reason, but has generally fallen out of social consciousness has minimal meaning.

I don't know a better english word to explain what I'm thinking... sorry.

I don't see any problem with celebrating meaningless holidays. Xmas is like that, some years when I'm not feeling grumpy I still celebrate that, .