Valentine’s Day has always been about love and couples celebrating that love, but Galentine’s Day aimed for the opposite—it aimed for a day of girls and their friendship. Couples celebrate the big day with traditional things such as going out for dinner, giving each other gifts, and even just hanging out. Girls do similar activities but they celebrate more and go all out.
These girls choose to celebrate friendship instead. They do so through a relatively new event known as “Galentine’s Day”–a day of strictly girls, all boys forgotten. Galentine’s originated circa 2010 from season 2, episode 16 of the show known as “Parks and Recreation”. Leslie Knope, one of the protagonists of the show, introduced the idea to her friends and the world at the same time, creating a “holiday” people continue to celebrate. While the empowering celebration of friendship started off as brunch, people all over the world have twisted it to their own liking.
Thanks to social media and the opportunity to quickly spread information, gals from all over the world have shared what they do on this special day. The ideal day includes having dinner, doing activities, taking pictures, and having a sleepover party. While the menu is open to change, one of the most common entrees being spread is heart shaped pizza. The host of the event tends to buy the ingredients needed for pizza and friends build their own pizza, ready to pop it into the oven. Alongside the entree, charcuterie boards and pink deserts tend to make an appearance at the feast. A common activity held at Galentine’s is building your own bouquet. Here, girls will pick from the many options of flowers and assemble their perfect bouquet, ready to take it home when the night ends. It isn’t exactly essential to document the event, but most girls tend to set up a wall in order to produce a beautiful backdrop for pictures.
According to Statista, searches on the web for Galentine’s Day reached an all time high in February 2023 with a roaring 903 thousand searches. The reason the search was so high was because younger females tend to be overly exposed to the holiday through the publicity it gets from the various platforms of social media, platforms that Generation Z are all over.
In fact, students at MACES get ready to celebrate this holiday. Mariana De Avila, a senior, shares that she “will be celebrating on February 15 because it falls on a Saturday and works perfectly for us (her and her friends).” She shares that, “I chose to participate in Galentine’s because I think Valentine’s Day is not only for couples but for friends as well. I wanted to spend time with my friends!”
Galentine’s Day isn’t a day meant to replace Valentine’s Day, but it is a day for girls to honor their friendship and celebrate that love. Both events coexist, creating a magical month for everyone who celebrates. Palentine’s Day, the male version of Galentine’s Day, exists yet doesn’t have as much traction or publicity as Galentine’s Day making it unknown to the public.
Galentine’s Day honors and celebrates both love and friendship at the same time through a series of activities that include food and games. It’s a day of fun and laughter, making it a day females want to celebrate.
