By: Shannon Cavender

Valentine’s Day is a holiday observed by many places all over the world. It’s filled with candy, flowers, silly greeting cards, and warm feelings. How did this all start,though?

The history of Valentine’s Days is rather foggy. A lot of people believe it is celebrated in honor of St. Valentine, however, no one really seems to know exactly what he did. Some legends say he helped Christians break out of prison. Others say Valentine was a priest that refused to follow the law of Emperor Claudius II, emperor of Rome, that said that his young soldiers were to remain without wives. Valentine hated the law and married the young soldiers to their lovers anyway. Another legend says that Valentine was throw in jail for refusing to give up Christianity, and sent love letters (aka Valentines) to his lover, who was rumored to be the jailer’s daughter.

Here are some opinions on the holiday:

   Josh Worthing (Junior)
“Valentine’s Day is a pretty interesting holiday because it’s not really celebrated in the traditional way that usual holidays are. There aren’t really house lights set up like Christmas. There’s no dressing up in costumes like Halloween. I feel Valentine’s Day is a little under celebrated. It needs to be celebrated in the typical fashion of usual holidays such as costumes or house lights, like reindeer lit up. That’s my feelings about Valentine’s Day. It’s under celebrated.”

  Drew Percy (Senior)
“I think a man should love the person that they’re with no matter what day it is and not be limited to one specific day.”

Does all of the lovey dovey hype about Valentine’s Day completely repel you? Well then you’re in luck, because Singles Awareness Day was created just for you.

Singles Awareness Day (abbreviated S.A.D) is an Anti-Valentine’s Day celebration that is all about being single. It preaches that you don’t have to be in love to have a good life. This holiday is often observed on the 13th, 14th, or 15th of February. So if you’re moping about not having a honey to spend Valentine’s Day with, put those thoughts on the back burner and have a little fun just enjoying life.
Here are some people who share your outlook:

  Sam Eichenlaub (Junior)
“Valentine’s Day is a cheap mediocre holiday that greeting card companies use to make people, like me, single, and not available, they makes us feel really crappy. Personally, the past three Valentine’s Days for me have been kind of poopy. I hate this holiday. I hate the heart farts and the “Oh on Valentine’s Day he got me a box of chocolates, and a teddy bear we’re so in love, and blah!” No, no you’re not in love. You’re just cheap. It’s a stupid day. It’s not like you love this person more on this day than you do on any other day, and if you do, you’re just stupid. It’s just a stupid holiday and it shouldn’t exist!”

  Owen Severson (Senior)
“Valentine’s Day is a wonderful time of year where people celebrate the act of commercializing love and that kind of thing. I enjoy sitting back and watching people spend hundreds of dollars on random things that will be forgotten by the next day. It’s a bit amusing actually.”

  Emily Slopek (Senior)
“I appreciate my family on Valentine’s Day, not the person I’m with. I don’t have anybody, but I’m happy without anybody.”

Whether you like it or not, it’s a holiday, so try to put up with it.

By: Shannon Cavender

Everyone spends their holidays in different ways. Here’s a look at the traditions of The Siren’s staff.

  Maria Capelli: “We don’t really do anything on Christmas day except for opening up gifts. Most of the events happen on Christmas Eve. We’ll go to my grandma’s and she makes all that fish and stuff. The Christmas Story is always on or National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Then we end up going up to church at eight or ten. Then we go back to my grandmas and open up presents, and eat some more ham. Then we go home.”

 Jess Jones: “ Everyone waits for me to wake up, we open presents, I watch my father pick up the wrappings, and all day my abulita calls me Scrooge.”

  Angelina Lauridia: “I sing at a nursing home and at the Children’s Hospital.”

 Ashley Emanuel: “Every year we either go to my dad’s mom’s or my mother’s mom’s. It switches every year. We go to Christmas Eve service. We usually spend time with each other in the evening, go to bed, open presents on Christmas morning, usually first thing. We always open the stockings first. Recently we’ve been doing it one present at a time. Usually our Christmas lasts the whole week, we spend the whole week together.”

  Kiki Flowers: “I get up at about four o’clock in the morning. First, I dump out all the stockings, and I put whatever candy that my brother and sister got that I didn’t get and I wanted into mine. I start unwrapping all the little presents. I will peek under the wrappings of all the stuff that my brother and sister got, too.”

  Madison Taylor: “My brother yells at me for sleeping in on Christmas morning, and then we go downstairs. I give my dog her presents first. Then everybody else opens their presents. Then it’s just a normal day and my mom makes a big dinner.”

 Robin Turici: “In my house we have this little hanger thing and we call it the elf. Every day we get a present. My sisters, that are 23, 21, and me, all get a present every single day of December. It still goes on, and it’s been 23 years.”

 Sara Dickey: “We open one present, it’s usually my grandma and grandpa’s cards to us, on Christmas Eve. Then we sleep and my brother, whose 21, he comes into my room, gets a chair, plops it in front of my bed, and he waits for me to wake up. This is at like five a.m. So I wake up to my brother’s face in my face which is kind of creepy. We do the same thing to my parents, and they never wake up so we end up making these weird noises to wake them up. Then we go and open up presents. If my mom could she would literally lock us out of the kitchen because that’s like her dinner of the year.”

 Shannon Cavender: “I spend Christmas Eve with my mother’s family, and Christmas day with my dad and my grandmother.”

 Taylor Cook : “Don’t look at me. I lay in my bed all day.”

  Sydney Dixon: “We go to someone in the family’s house. Its’ not the same every year. There’s a marathon on of The Christmas Story that plays twenty four hours. No matter what, it’s always on somewhere. It’s always playing in the background, even if we are not there. If we are at my Aunt Lisa’s house my uncle blames her for letting her cat get up in all the food.”