Black Heart Day

For some of you, today might have been filled with flowers and chocolates and sweet nothings and all of the other things that Valentines day is, so we’re told, supposed to be filled with. For others it may be considered the Black Heart Day, on which one should either celebrate their single state, rejoicing in the fact that this ‘insipid and clichéd’ holiday is not for them, or boycott all gestures that might appear trite and schmaltzy with a passion. There are also people both in love and out of it who don’t really give a toss either way (that would be me today) but when I stumbled on the Black Hearts Party homepage earlier, it did intrigue me.

Sick and tired of the phony, contrived, synthetic and unnatural side of love portrayed by Celine Dion listening, Julia Roberts watching, Meg Ryan worshiping devotees of Hallmark (their words, although not in that order), a group of friends decided to host an invitation only Black Heart party. A party at which one wore black things, drank black things, ate black things, saw black things and it seems generally behaved in a way that was possibly not conducive to finding and/or keeping the love of your life. This party has since become an annual event however, growing rather dramatically in size, and the organisers themselves have indeed formed their own ‘party’ complete with homepage and manifesto.

This site tells of their somewhat humble beginnings, identifying like-minded individuals who also felt resentful of the cookie-cutter ideal foisted upon us by mass marketing campaigns. It expressed their smoldering discontent (and indeed contempt) for the idea that out of 883 million people, everybody has ‘the one’ single person who is their perfect equal and match. Laughing at the notion that with this soul mate it would be possible to have ‘true love which requires no effort, patience or compromise, is instantly recognizable, perpetually devoid of temptation and distraction, and never falters or loses momentum’. They do point out that its not that they don’t believe in love or value it, its merely that this flagship holiday has, in their opinion, nothing to do with it.

According to the authors, love is hard, awkward and at times somewhat humiliating. It is also apparently the cat’s f’ing madras slacks but they don’t see that it requires a national frenzy of spending that causes many to feel resentful, miserable and lonely. The idea that an ‘arbitrary, artificial holiday should serve as the official manifestation of love between all types of people everywhere’ and that ‘those countless varieties of people, in all their diversity should conform to present behaviours and activities when demonstrating their love on this day, which, coincidentally enough, is also the same way the executives at Hallmark and the Disney Corporation think’, is extremely distasteful.

All in all, it sounds as though it started off as a laugh and kept on going. I thought the site was amusing and the idea definitely entertained me. I don’t hate Valentines day and I’m not personally bagging those who enjoy it but I felt like writing about this cause I thought it was kinda cool. I must apologise however if I have somewhat bastardised the message on the site. On the other hand though, perhaps they really wouldn’t care.