St. Valentine's Day

Since I didn't grow up here, I am not familiar with British traditions of Valentine's day. For me, it is just a day when couples are  supposed to celebrate to show their love and singles are supposed to also celebrate but on a more modest scale to show that they are not ashamed of being single. A cynic would say everyone has a part to play in this charade. My single status is an empirical fact: I am not proud of it and neither am I ashamed of it. To be fair, part of this  rant was driven by a colleague telling me it was a little sad that I wasn't celebrating Valentine's day. But, I am perfectly capable of mourning my long-time single status of my own volition from time to time. When someone shames  or patronizes me about it, it makes me own my single status. I feel so so comfortable with it that I don't need to assert my comfort.
But, as I keep saying, the times are changing. Notions of what it means to be settled in life will also change and single people will stop being objects of pity.