Valentine’s Day: “All about gifts, less about love”
With Valentine's Day coming on Friday, February 14th and many lovers planning to surprise their partners, we sampled six people who shared their plans for Valentine's Day. For 80% of them, the celebration of Valentine's Day is determined by economic realities and relationship status. If you have a promising relationship but the economic reality is not favourable, you would likely let the day slide, as we found out.
However, the other 20% say there's nothing special about the day, and it is like every other day. The sampling also shows that the celebration doesn't keep one's relationship and if it does, maybe the relationship was built on material things rather than love.
A reality check
In 2023, a study on Valentine's Day revealed that it is “all about gifts, less about love” and “the commercialisation of Valentine's Day is more prevalent than ever.”
This is likely the situation in Nigeria where the majority of lovers are looking forward to gifts and shopping on Valentine's Day—whether to show off on the internet, or to reconfirm their relationship status. Unfortunately, the present economic reality which has subsequently affected the sale of food and gift items in markets may cut off a lot of expectations this year.
Looking at the five-year trend of POS transactions, the data shows that transactions increased between 2020, 2021, and 2022 in February when compared to January of the same year, which is assumed to be driven by couples buying gifts, dining out, or shopping for loved ones.
However, in 2023 and 2024, transactions declined, suggesting the impact of high cost of living which started soaring from the preceding fiscal year to 2024. This change could mean that people are cutting back on Valentine's day expenses due to financial constraints or a change in relationship status.
For instance, Mayowa* who participated in the sampling disclosed that in 2024, he celebrated Valentine's Day with his partner by buying gifts and dining out on that day. This year, he has no plans to celebrate, as he's currently single.
Other Occasions
However, Valentine's Day is not the only day to express love. There are other days like birthdays, anniversaries, and first dates. The beautiful thing is all of these occasions are once a year, so you might not necessarily have to ‘show up’ in all of them, except it is not going to impact your finances.
For some relationships, this may not be the case. According to Love*, giving gifts to your loved ones on special occasions is normal and doesn't mean (even if it impacts your pocket). However, having a consistent budget plan for special occasions will be a lot better and may not be seen as significantly impacting your wallet because it has already been planned out.
Relationship Palava
Despite differing views on Valentine's Day, there is an advantage it brings to every relationship. According to a recent report, some women may contemplate divorce because their partners do not celebrate them on special occasions. In a separate study, gift-giving is a channel for expressing feelings of affection and intimacy and therefore plays a major role in romantic relationships.
Currently, Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest divorce rate in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although this data may not necessarily mean people in a relationship are experiencing divorce due to lack of exchanging gifts, it is one of the important ways to maintain a relationship.
Thanks for reading this edition of Pocket Science. It was written by Salako Emmanuel and edited by Joachim MacEbong.
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