Why Galentine’s Day is the best new holiday of the year
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, a holiday where couples feel pressure to be couple-y and single people feel presure to pretend they don’t care. But today, a far superior holiday is being celebrated by lovers and loners alike: today is Galentine’s Day. Galentine’s Day, a holiday invented by all-around perfect queen Leslie Knope, is a day where boyfriends get left behind and lady-friends come together for conversation, celebration, empowerment, and, hopefully, waffles. Here are just a few reasons Galentine’s Day is the most important day of the year, should be celebrated by every lady you know, and should probably be made a legal holiday as soon as humanly possible.
It’s all about support: Being an adult is tough. You have to put on pants every day, you can’t eat Chipotle for every meal, you have to remember to do things like send people birthday cards and shower. And though your significant other may be supportive, there’s nothing quite as reassuring as texting your best ladyfriend at the end of a long day to vent. Galentine’s Day is a 24 hour window in which asking for and giving advice to your girlfriends is not only welcomed, it’s assumed. Being in a room full of the gals closest to you and giving each other free reign to say and feel however you want with NO fear of judgment can be just the environment one of you needs to finally realize you need to get out of that dead-end job, or that unhealthy relationship, or those weird MC Hammer pants. It’s important to let your friends know that any (healthy) decision she makes is one you’ll get behind, and the all-emcompassing support system that Galentine’s Day offers is a phenomenon we should allow ourselves to experience way more often than once a year. But we’ve gotta start somewhere.
It’s a reminder to not feel ashamed of your accomplishments: Somewhere along the line in our gender’s cultural evolution, it became unacceptable for us to openly celebrate ourselves. Even in today’s more progressive cultural climate, a woman outwardly owning her awesomeness rubs too many people the wrong way. On Galentine’s Day, celebrating each other’s accomplishments is as crucial a tradition as eating frittatas. Though we don’t hear it often enough (maybe because we don’t say it often enough), ladies are killin’ it these days. Instead of falling into the maddening faux-humility trap (“No, it’s really not that great. I’m just going to be one of the new female Ghostbusters. No biggie at ALL!”), let’s use Galentine’s Day to remind each other that when we accomplish great things, we’re allowed to be proud, and we’re worthy of praise from each other.. Brag it up, ladies!
It’s a reason to make time for besties (not that we need a reason): These days, a woman’s job rarely ends when she leaves her place of employment. One woman can be a professional, a mother, a wife, a chef, a maid, and a million other things within the course of a single day. And sometimes, she’s so busy being so many things for so many people, she forgets to take some time to enjoy her very important role as BFF. Galentine’s Day gives busy ladies an excuse to drop everything to hang out with friends. It may seem juvenile, but no matter what age we are, we still needs to set aside time for play-dates away from partners, school, work, Internet worm-holes and other stuff that occupies most of our time. And that’s where Galentine’s Day comes in: February 13th is a reminder to make time for our ladies.
It’s a celebration of being a ‘gal‘: It’s easy to forget how great it is to be a woman when we live in a world that sometimes presents gender biases and roadblocks to our choices. But we are lucky. Being a woman makes you feel like you’re a part of something larger—a group of passionate people who come together to support each other. We’re deeply, innately connected, and we are responsible for each other’s well-being. We are sisters and we are lucky to have each other. Celebrate yourselves, celebrate each other, celebrate Leslie Knope’s ability to invent a holiday that truly rules! Happy Galentine’s Day, gals!
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