That’s Valentine’s Day to you. I just fancied writing it. “Valentinky” has quite a nice ring to it too.
Why Walentynki? I don’t really subscribe to the common concept of what Valentine’s Day is about in the UK.
As a teenager, you just kind of sulk about it (though there are so many things to sulk about as a teenager, I’m not sure how much others perceive the difference on this occasion).
As a young adult, the pang increases a little. Now people possibly have some money to spend on the day. But as much as anything, it’s just a reminder that others have someone in their lives and you don’t. Which is not always a good thing to dwell on. (At this stage you dwell on things, rather than sulking, possibly because you only have one main room to hang out in, so you can’t exactly run off to your room when it gets too much.)
In this stage of life, I happened to be in Poland during Valentine’s Day. Both times were memorable, for different reasons. The first time, I received a Valentine’s fax from a family friend.
Firstly, receiving a fax made quite an impact in the boarding school/convent where I was staying, and secondly, it reminded me that a world existed beyond the one in Poland I had joined just a week before. (My family didn’t hear from me for a fortnight, the length of time it took to me first to remember and then to work out how to post my first letter from Poland. Life pre-mobile eh?)
The second time, a sudden change in circumstances. I had someone, I hadn’t been together with them the previous Valentine’s Day, and all of a sudden, this year, I was engaged. And he was in a different country. But I learned to be upbeat – particularly aided by seeing the enthusiasm with which Poles had taken to Valentine’s Day.
This was a holiday adopted after the end of Communism. The flashy thing to do was take your true love out to McDonalds. In fact, the drive-through McDonalds round the corner from where I lived had a photo montage of happy couples in McDonalds over Valentine’s Day.
From a UK perspective, it doesn’t seem very romantic. But I liked the enthusiasm, the sense of rising to the occasion. Rather than a slushfest, Valentine’s Day had become fun, cheerful even.
I didn’t take myself out for a McDonald’s that year, you may be pleased to hear. I did buy myself flowers. But I developed a liking for a sense of what a particular day could mean in a new context.
Walentynki. You can’t just buy it in the shops. But it’s what every relationship needs from time to time.
(Footnote: despite telling my colleagues that Dan and I don’t really ‘do’ Valentine’s, I returned home to a little parcel of Italian deli goodies that he had happily selected. There’s another good aspect of Walentynki – having your expectations changed. It’s a wise man that knows that a woman also appreciates the ‘way to one’s heart is through one’s stomach’.)
So, I salute Valentine perspectives with Peroni beer – and will save mention of the outcome of the other ingredients for another day.