> It just seems to me that the societal norms attaached to this holiday almost forces one to do something for his/her significant other, or risk alienating him/her for a couple days at the least.

But if that happens, it's not *society* doing that, it's the person in question. You just got through saying that other couples refrain from celebrating it and get along just fine without it. But if someone does want to celebrate it, and she's hooked up with a guy who doesn't give a crap about that fact, the violin I play to drown the sorrows of said guy in mournful sympathies would be a very small one.

If you're in a relationship with somebody for reasons that aren't completely selfish, the principles of the rightness or wrongness of a society-followed holiday take a back seat to meeting the emotional needs and desires of that one specific person. That's my point. It's that if you're in a position where Valentine's Day matters to you, then the societal observances of the holiday itself really don't matter at all.