About nine years ago, Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope declared February 13 as Galentine’s Day on the popular American show, Parks and Rec. A day dedicated solely to celebrate the women in your life, Leslie explained the significance of it, “Oh, it’s only the best day of the year. Every February 13th, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It’s like Lilith Fair, minus the angst. Plus frittatas.”
Soon enough, G-Day became a part of pop culture. Women from across the globe – both fans of the show and the uninitiated – keep joining the growing cult of Galentine’s Day every year. While Valentine’s Day brings with it the stress of performative romance for validation, G-Day is all about celebrating the women in your life. Platonic friendships of all kind are important too, but sometimes things just get a tad too lonely in the sea of testosterone that the world at large tends to be.
Here’s why you too should join the cult.
G-Day hasn’t been commercialised… yet
Over the years, American brands like Lyft and Target have tried to appropriate the unofficial holiday. After all, a day when women celebrate the special women in their lives sounds like the best Hallmark Holiday idea ever. But, largely, it remains a non-commercial day dedicated to the women we should celebrate in our lives – from our moms to our 4am friends. The ones who are always there for you, be it a happy day or one shrouded with the grayest clouds.
Even better…on G-Day, your relationship status doesn’t matter
You can be single, you can be married, in a long-term relationship, or be in a complicated situationship. On G-Day, none of that matters! Only your female friendships do. Not that we need a special day to let the women in our lives know how much we value and appreciate them. But a dedicated day to do just that is never a bad idea.
After all, birthdays and anniversaries would also be rendered redundant by the logic that you can celebrate just about anything, any day of the year. And who wants to live in a world like that?
How you choose to celebrate these bonds is also entirely up to you!
Leslie would obviously have recommended a 5000-word essay for each friend, explaining why you love them so much, but we understand if you just can’t do that. You all can go out for brunch or dinner, sip on sangrias, and dance your hearts out sans any painful stilettos in sight. You can give your friends bouquets of flowers and gourmet chocolates too if you want to. But here’s the beauty of Galentine’s Day. You don’t have to do any of these. Warm hugs and binging on your favourite TV shows before going to sleep on time can also suffice.
