'Valentighting' sees couples break up so they don't have to buy Valentine's Day gifts

It’s usually a day filled with love, chocolates and flowers but for some, Valentine’s Day might also have included getting dumped as part of a savage new dating trend.

The particularly cruel trend is called ‘Valentighting’, which sees people literally tightening their pockets by breaking up with their other half just in time for the most romantic day of the year.

It’s mainly so that the person doing the dumping doesn’t have to fork out money for a fancy date night or gift for their supposed loved one. Who said love is dead?

And it seems many people think this is totally acceptable, including author of Feedback Revolution Margie Mauldin.

Margie reckons people stuck in a dead-end relationship should get out before Valentine’s Day, so they don’t have to deal with the ‘expectations surrounding it’.

“Having a person go through that when you’re just going to break up seems like double misery to me,” she told the Chicago Tribune last year.

“From a dollars and cents perspective, you’re paying for a nice night out and flowers and chocolates.

“Right there, you’re probably talking $100 or $150 that you’re saving.”

While you might be shocked by the comments, maybe we should take a look back at the history of Valentine’s Day, which isn’t in the least bit romantic at all.

The day all started when Roman Catholic priest, Valentine, decided to marry catholics in secret, after the Roman Emperor at the time, Claudius II, banned marriage, because he thought it made men bad soldiers.

Old romantic, St. Valentine, apparently was having none of this and decided to marry men and women in secret – all in the name of love.

Soon enough, Claudius found out about St. Valentine’s escapades and threw him in jail. This is where things get a bit grisly.

St. Valentine was sentenced to death but before he was killed, he is said to have fallen in love with the daughter of one of the jail guards.

Just before his death, St. Valentine is said to have written a love letter to the woman, signing it, ‘From your Valentine”.

Grim!

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