Begin a ‘Galentine’s Day’ Tradition This Year

photo from nbc.com

Everyone knows February 14 is Valentine’s Day, but February 13 is a lesser-known holiday: Galentine’s Day. Originating in 2010 from the NBC comedy, “Parks and Recreation,” Galentine’s Day is the perfect foil for Valentine’s Day.

While February 14 is about romantic relationships, February 13 is about celebrating friendships, so you can celebrate it regardless of your relationship status. According to Pawnee Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation, Leslie Knope, “It’s wonderful, and it should be a national holiday.”

College is often where the strongest friendships are formed. There’s something in the soil of academia that causes friends to stick together long after graduation.

The world can be a scary place, but we weren’t meant to get through it alone. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”

Friends are there to pick you up when you fall. Friends are there to listen as you rant about your life. Friends are there to drive you to the hospital when you have a medical emergency. Friends are there to sit with you and watch all the Harry Potter movies in one day.

Don’t take your friends for granted. They accept you, they love you in spite of your weirdness, and you do the same to them.

As Knope says, “We need to remember what’s important in life: Friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. It doesn’t matter. But work is third.”

So in honor of friendships (and waffles), celebrate Galentine’s Day this year.

Celebrate Galentine’s Day

• Get your friends together. February 13 is a Saturday this year, so you won’t have to worry about classes or homework getting in the way of having a good time.
• Brunch. You can’t go wrong with breakfast food, especially waffles. It doesn’t matter what you eat, as long as waffles are included – and lots of whipped cream. If you don’t eat waffles with whipped cream, you’re eating them wrong.
• Reminisce about the past, share your favorite memories of each other, and talk about your plans for the future.
• Give gifts. Homemade is the way to go.
• Go back to where it all started. Watch Episode 16 of the second season of “Parks and Recreation.” Once you’re finished, you might as well watch the rest of the show. The final season was just added to Netflix, so what are you waiting for?

Jonathan Gallardo is a senior journalism major and sports editor for Cedars. He enjoys writing fiction, reading Stephen King and watching “Parks and Recreation” over and over again.