Beyond flowers and chocolates: searching for a meaning for Valentine's Day

Valentines Day is becoming increasingly important to the cultural makeup of Australia. While its popularity is undoubtedly attributable to the increased Americanisation of our popular culture, and its indisputable connection with consumerism, behind Valentines Day lies the important idea that it exemplifies love as a central existential ideal. The implications of centering romantic love in this way require some reflection. The concept of romantic love can be traced to courtly love in the Middle Ages, but is more properly dated to the eighteenth century. Its central feature is that it values and legitimates individual ties independent of factors external to the individuals concerned. Romantic love established that two people could love each other regardless of who they were, where they came from, and what anyone else thought about it.