Carola Ekrem. Helsinki, Finland
St. Valentine's Day, celebrated as an annual feast on February 14, is deeply rooted in British and North American culture. One of the most common customs is sending your sweetheart a valentine, i.e. a postcard or a present often decorated with hearts. The name of the feast relates to the life of a saint called Valentine, which did not have much in common with the present St. Valentine's Day, celebrated as the day of romanticism and friendship.
St. Valentine's Day is one of the most recent feasts in the Finnish Calendar, it was introduced only a few years ago. However, the day as such has been familiar, but the observance and actual celebration of the feast are recent.
The observation of the innovation process has been exceptional. The process from an innovative idea into an innovation has been rapid. In an article on innovative ideas from 1981, the Finland-Swedish researcher Mary-Ann Elfving suggested that St. Valentine's Day specifically was a potential annual feast for the Finnish Calendar.
In 1981, the feast was only sporadically perceptible in the Finnish streets. It was known through American comics and described in women's magazines reporting St. Valentine's balls, which were arranged by American organizations in Finland.
The way the day is celebrated with pink roses, it seems incompatible with the reticent national character of the Finns. Official romanticism is not a typical feature of the Finnish calendar feasts. Nevertheless, Mary-Ann Elfving predicted that St. Valentine's Day would be adopted as soon as it was made the object of active marketing. The present message is not liked by any particular culture, friendship and love are universal values. Moreover, feasts are scarce in the Finnish calendar in mid-February. The introduction of a feast of British and American origin is facilitated by the youth identifying themselves with the culture of these countries.
The process from an innovative idea over the prime invention stage to establishment started in 1986. That was when St. Valentine's Day obviously had gained business supporters. In 1986 the feast was definitely more perceptible in the streets; department stores filled their show windows with symbols of love, customers were greeted by pink `Happy Valentine' hearts. Valentine cards were distributed by a hamburger chain. The Post Office announced a large card campaign for the following year, but urged people to send each other valentine cards and letters that year already.
Consequently, it can be observed that the marketing was started at exactly the same time by several authorities, each having their own commercial incentives.
In 1987 a massive campaign was launched. Valentine cards were more generally sold in the shops. Some of the cards still had a design allowing them to be used also for birthdays, for instance. Many shops put heaps of Valentine gifts on display. Restaurants served Lover's Steak and Valentine soup on February 14... Television adds advised people to celebrate the new feast.
In order to emphasize a more serious origin than a purely commercial one, various versions of the legends about the martyr Saint Valentine were referred to.
In 1990 St. Valentine's Day has evidently turned from an idea into an innovation. The Feast has been established in the Finnish Calendar. The feast appears to be observed. Yet, actual celebrating is a different matter.
For an innovation to maintain its position, is has to be supported also within the personal contact network.
For an innovative idea to be properly classified as an established innovation, it must be actually celebrated and actively observed. The valentine cards and gifts on the market must actually be bought and sent by people. The celebrating, i.e. the consuming of the valentine items, involves the spreading of the feast message, thus gradually establishing the feast more permanently.
Youth is a presumptive target group for innovations. Today the business world and the Post Office have exploited the day to the utmost by making it attractive and inspiring. Has this been achieved, has St. Valentine's Day been established?
In 1986, as St. Valentine's Day was visible in the streets of Helsinki for the first time, I asked the students of a school on the outskirts of Helsinki what they knew about the new calendar day. 60% of the interviewed students had heard of the day. The widespread advertisements and the campaign of the hamburger chain had been generally noticed. Some of the students were already acquainted with the feast through American comic books. However, in 1986 many of the students were not aware of the real reason for celebrating St. Valentine's Day. It was vaguely associated with the notion of `friendship'. None of the interviewed celebrated the feast at all, they did not generally take a great interest in the matter.
In 1987 the advertisement campaign had been more energetic than the year before. I made a new interview among the students of the same school about the meaning of St. Valentine's Day. The advertising had been successful. 88% of the interviewed students had heard of the feast. The campaigns had particularly emphasized topics like the benefit of friendship and the importance of preserving friendship. The day was marketed as a famous and magic day of friendship, calling especially for actions to preserve friendship.
The message of friendship had been successful. An interesting feature is that the friendship message had also become abstract, and thus did not favor the large supply of gift items. The students answered that St. Valentine's Day is important because you then celebrate that everybody has friends, or that everybody can get friends that day. In this interview, 20% of the interviewed had actually celebrated that day by sending their friends cards or presents. Consequently, St. Valentine's Day had turned from an abstract feast notion an actually celebrated feast in one year.
The popularity may be considered fairly well-established in Finland today. In 1990, after an interval of three years, students of the same school were interviewed again. This time, 97% of the interviewed students were acquainted with the day. The celebration of the feast had also been established. Nearly half of the girls had sent their friends valentine cards, and one fourth had given them presents. Among the boys, only a few had sent any valentine cards. In other words, St. Valentine's Day is established only among the girls.
Although the day is not celebrated by all young people, the message connected with it is generally known. One knows that it is the day of friendship, kindness and good spirits. The message is generally experienced as a positive one. It is remarkable, that rather few students paid any special attention to the way the business world exploits the friendship message. They find that there are also ways of celebrating without paying, trying to be nice during the entire day or giving your friends a hug does not cost you anything.
During the process of establishing St. Valentine's Day in Finland, there has been a drastic change from the romantic approach of the Anglo-Saxon countries to the message of friendship. None of the interviewed students associated the day with love and dating in any way. Valentine gifts and cards are exchanged almost exclusively by girls.
Thus, it can be observed that the message has been adapted to Finnish conditions. For a new idea to be widely spread it must fulfill certain requirements. It must mean something to the presumptive target group, it must be compatible with prevailing values and its idea must be easy to transmit. The rapid diffusion of St. Valentine's Day in Finland shows that it actually fulfills these requirements. The association with American culture enhances its popularity. Most of the interviewed students knew that the day is celebrated in the USA. A second aspect is the implication of friendship, which seems to be a dominant feature of attraction in Finland. The students' answers imply a touch not far from the Christian love message. For instance, some of the answers give as a reason for celebrating St. Valentine's Day `being nice also to people you don't like'. The message of love is further extended in a spirit of youthful internationalism; `everybody should have a friend, we should all be friends, there should be friendship all over the world'.
The Magic Day of Love turned into the Magic Day of Friendship in Finland. Friendship is of course expressed by the consumer-oriented means intended to be used by those who introduced the Day, but not merely by these means. The innovation process has not stopped, the stage of establishing requires further studies. Which form will the celebrating take in the future? A day for giving presents or a day with a touch of idealism. Or will St. Valentine's Day meet with the same fate as many other youth trends - getting out of fashion ad disappearing until a new generation discovers the commercial and idealistic prospects offered by the friendship message.
1 Ekrem, C. Varje vän är värd att minnas på alla hjärtans dag. Firandel av Valentindagen bland finlandssvenska ungdomar. SLS Arkiv, No. 15. Helsingfors, 1987.
2 Ekrem, C. Ystävänpäivän viettoa suomalaisittain. Sessio, Suomen etnomusikologisen seuran tiedote. 1990, No. 2. Tampere.
3 Elfving, M-A. Varför studera innovativa ideer? Valentindagen och Halloween. Fynd och forskning. Red av Ivar Nordlund. Meddelanden från Folkkultursarkivet. 7. Helsingfors, 1981.
4 Hole, C. A Dictionary of British Folk Customs. Granada Publishing, 1976.