Don’t Worry If You’re Single This V-Day, So Is Half of Sweden
Valentine’s whatever – welcome to Swedish romance
Seriously, who even cares about Valentine’s Day? Everyone. Everyone cares. Except for us Swedes. (Side note: just remembered that my ex, who is American, thought it was called Valentime’s day, lolol.)
If you guys would come to Sweden around the week before Valentine’s, you would definitely wonder if you time traveled to a day no where near February 14th. Heart-shaped candy, love struck tea mugs, cheesy greeting cards and whatever it is you guys go spend too much money on to celebrate love are nowhere to be found. There is not a love take over in every city. The interesting explanation to this will follow shortly.
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I mean of course there are couples that give each other chocolate, flowers or even gifts that are actually nice. I even once got a set of sexy underwear from a Swedish ex, real American style, but it pissed me off. If you’re gonna buy a gift for me, buy a gift for ME. I feel like a laced thong and a two-cups-too-small push-up bra is more for him.
Anyways. Since we Swedes are obsessed with the US and all of your traditions and culture, Valentine’s Day has for sure become a day where couples celebrate their love with gifts and a date night, but we are still in the place where we feel obliged to say, at least four times, that “Valentine’s is just a day created by commercial forces, I think we should celebrate love every day.” Yada yada. But you still expect your man to court you this specific day.
The thing is, couples are a rarity in Sweden. Single is the way to be. Over 40 percent of all households are headed up by a single adult, making Sweden the country with the highest amount of single people in the world. Single is the most common civil status in the country!
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All this would be all good if research doesn’t tell us that Swedes are the people not just being but also feeling loneliest in the world… So you can imagine the level of bitterness on February 14th. A lot of Ben & Jerry’s going down, to say the least. Wearing sweats and crying alone on the couch is one of our most popular Valentine’s Day activities.
But there are three other options:
1. You go out and get drunk af to drown your sorrows.
2. You go out and get drunk af with your girlfriends to celebrate the fact you don’t have an annoying boyfriend to complicate your life.
3. You take your three best friends, catch a two hour flight to London, and go shopping, sip champagne and go to a Drake concert.
I’ll be doing number three.
