Wine, condoms, valentines, oh my!
Coping Strategies for this love-ly holiday

It’s impossible to ignore. The signs are everywhere. Red flowers, candy hearts — yep, Valentine’s Day is here again. However, while red flowers and candy hearts are a traditional staple of Valentine’s Day, there are also two other symbols associated with the holiday — one we at The Stylus can’t fully understand and another we wish America would embrace. Condoms and wine.

National Condom Day: It coincides with Valentine’s Day — but unlike Valentine’s Day, there is an entire week that advocates condom usage. National Condom Week runs from Feb. 11 to Feb. 17, with National Condom Day falling mid-way through the week on Feb. 14.

We’re all for safe sex, but why does it have to coincide with Valentine’s Day? We understand that National Condom Day is not merely a campus event — but the on-campus signs advertising the two holidays list National Condom Day before Valentine’s Day. This changes the emphasis of the day from love to latex. Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be about focusing on lust. Valentine’s Day is supposed to be about all types of love.

However, we are OK with the idea of Valentine’s Day being about wine.

“Trifon Zarezan:” Like National Condom Day, this holiday overlaps with Valentine’s Day in Bulgaria. It is loosely translated to “Wine’s Day.” It gives Bulgarians the opportunity to be happy and satisfied no matter what their relationship status. It’s the perfect way for singles to get a taste of the February holiday season. It is also an incredibly legit and valid reason to enjoy a glass or two of wine.

Besides, it also eliminates the stigma that is associated with being alone on Valentine’s Day. If someone asks your plans for Valentine’s Day, you can easily say you’re celebrating Trifon Zarezan. No looks of pity, no awkward silence  —  nothing. It’s perfect! In America, lots of people associate Valentine’s Day with the pressure to love, be loved or be miserable. It is notorious for making single people depressed. However, if we embraced Trifon Zarezan like the Bulgarians perhaps Valentine’s Day wouldn’t be the epitiomy of Hallmark holidays. Instead it would signify a reason to celebrate – and that reason to celebrate would be whatever you wanted it to be about. Some could focus on love while others could focus on just having a good time – and the lucky ones could focus on both.  Either way, now everyone has a reason to celebrate the halfway mark of the shortest and arguably most gloomy month of the year.

But that doesn’t mean we should get rid of one Valentine’s Day tradition that seems to get ignored once you leave the third grade: valentines! Sure, lovers still buy them for each other, but other than that they tend to be a dying art. So, we at The Stylus have come up with a few examples of valentines.

Don’t let today get you down – find a way to celebrate, be it through rhymes, wine or condoms. We recommend you try the wine.