Valentine’s Day a Scam or a day of love: Differing perspectives on Valentine’s Day; Inspired by third century (AD) priest St Valentines, the 14th of February has been divisive worldwide, with many looking forward to it every year and many simply being disinterested by the thought of the entire 24 hours. Pope Gelasius declaration of the Valentine’s Day Festival in Ancient Rome at the end of the fifth century, set in stone the day of romance for the following millennium. The day itself and 48 hours before it, is one the most profitable days, along with Christmas, Mothers and Father’s day and Easter weekend.

With these facts, I posed questions to a variety of demographics, relating to the days itself Demographics interviewed include: • An elder male • An elder female • A younger male • A younger female Interviews were conducted among the staff and students of Tolworth Girls School 6th Form.

The first interviewed was director of 6th form, teacher of two decades, father and loving husband for 17 years.

I proposed the same questions to him as I did to each individual interviewed; • A one-word response; what comes to mind when I say the word love?

• Which would you rather receive on Valentine’s Day? - Jewellery ; - Chocolate and flowers ; - Clothing ; - the person’s presence ; - None of the above • Do you think Valentine’s Day should be couple exclusive or an overall day of appreciation for anyone close to you?

• Can your love be bought?

• Would you be offended if your partner doesn’t give you a gift on Valentine’s Day?

• Overall would you consider Valentine’s Day a scam or a day of appreciation?

Answering the first question, he answered “commitment” and expanded on his answer by expressing “after 17 years of marriage, you learn to love and accept your partner’s flaws and insecurities”.

When faced with the choices, he firmly proclaimed that “the presence of the other person is better than any gift”

When I put forward the third question he answered “Everyone should get to experience some sort of love during the day, whether being part of a couple or not”

He answered the question with a humoured expression he answered the question with a laugh, loudly exclaiming “No, not at all”.

“I get my wife flowers and a few gifts, every now and then but as far as Valentine’s Day go, I wouldn’t at all be offended because, it is mostly aimed at young people, with a glamorized expectation of love”. Was the response he gave back to me following the third question.

When faced with the last question he waited a few seconds to exclaim “on the surface, it is huge business scam, businesses make quite a lot of money from gifts and grand gestures, again mainly those with a glamorized expectation of love and relationships.”

Firmly standing on the side of Valentine’s Day being a scam, he referenced the correlation between expensive weddings and short marriages, he used this as evidence exclaiming “expensive gifts and grand gestures don’t lead to happiness and rather misery and regret.

We interviewed a year 13 Maths and Art female student at the school (fulfilling the role of the young female) After a prolonged period of laughter, she responded “money” to the first question, followed by another prolonged period of laughter.

She rather seriously answered the second question exclaiming “the person’s presence would mean a lot and a gift would be optional”

“I would enjoy spending the day with my mum or my best friend or anyone else close to me”, was her response to the second question.

I challenged her with the fourth question as she took a number of seconds to answer it, but eventually answered with a solitary “possibly”.

“No he doesn’t have to, if he can’t, it really doesn’t matter to me”, was her given response to fourth.

She answered the last question with relative quickness and ease proclaiming “it is quite a scam, because it is quite unnecessary and pointless”

She gave a similar response to the previously interviewed by concluding that it is a scam.

The third interview was the quickest one conducted as the young male (sixth form Maths and DT student) gave quick, short answers to each question.

He gave a vague answer when faced with the first question simply responded “emotion”.

Differing to the prior two he responded “jewellery”, to the second questions.

“Overall day” was his response to the third question.

He gave a humorous response to his fourth answer followed by a smile while answering “if they can afford it”

The fifth question was answered quite colloquially with the answer “Nah, not really”

“it is a serious scam” was his response on the final question whilst shaking his head.

Thus far all those interviewed have concluded that that whole day is quite a scam however we had one more interview.

The final interviewed was 6th form secretary and attendance offer, whose been married for over 20 years.

She gave a prolonged answer to the first question, responding “important, we spend our whole life looking for someone to love us in the way we want”

“The person’s presence becomes more important than any gift and gesture in a truly loving relationship, you could both be sitting in complete silence and you would still feel comfortable”.

Each interviewed gave the exact same response to the third question as similar to the previous she exclaimed “an overall day of appreciation opened to everyone”.

The third question was the quickest on she answered, responding “no, no, no, no amount of money can buy it”.

“I’ve been married for many, many, many years and it gets to the point where you don’t even remember the day some years, so if we come to some kind of agreement in the days prior then there would be no reason for me to be offended”, was the response offered to my fourth question.

Mimicking those interviewed prior to her, she concluded “it is a scam but it is socially accepted”.

With that response, she answered the main question. Whether young or old, it is agreed upon that February 14th is an overall scam.