Why you should avoid saying 'I do' this Valentine's

Are you planning to get married today as part of Valentine’s Day celebrations? You may need to think twice.

Our advice? Pick your Bible and go to church if you are a Christian and celebrate Ash Wednesday instead, and it will be well with your soul.

A study has shown that people who get married on Valentine’s Day never live to enjoy their marriage.

For them, it is a “happily ever after” that never lasts, at least according to the researchers.

The study goes on to claim that the failure rate of such marriages is higher among those who marry on Valentine’s days that fall on either Monday or Tuesday.

Luckily, this year’s Valentine’s falls on a Wednesday.

Conducted by the University of Melbourne in Australia, the study found that those who got married on February 14 were either likely to split up (37 per cent) or not make it to their third anniversary (45 per cent).

At least 1.1 million Dutch weddings were analysed in the study whose findings were published in the Journal of Population Economics.

The study found that six per cent of marriages that took place on February 14 failed within three years compared to the average four per cent (failure rate).

It also revealed that couples who got married on Valentine’s Day were most likely to have cohabited for a period of one year.

“The chance to marry on a special date could increase the net attractiveness of a wedding and lead to quicker and lower-quality marriage commitments, on average, which might increase the vulnerability of the resulting marriages,” wrote Daily Mail on February 9, citing the study.

In the UK, for example, the start of the year is not favoured by many couples getting married.

However, the number of weddings during the week across the year is 313 but escalates to 1,039 on February 14.

Another study on Valentine’s Day claims that married men and women plan to spend this day with their lovers, not spouses.

Conducted by a dating site in Australia for married people, Ashley Madison Australia, and reported by Daily Mail UK, the study said 28 per cent of married people would prefer to have escapades with their lovers on Valentine’s Day.

And the cheating men and women are more than willing to spend big on the “sidekicks”. Each said they planned to spend between Sh100,000 and Sh250,000 to spoil their secret lovers.

Having dinner

Some 1,638 women were surveyed in the study between January 25 and February 5, 2018.

“When asked, 71 per cent of respondents said they planned to celebrate Valentine’s Day with their affair partner by having sex while 73 per cent said they planned to spend Valentine’s Day with their spouse by having dinner,” wrote the Daily Mail on on February 12.

Closer home, Bishop John Muchemi of Elim Pentecostal Church says such findings are not surprising at all.

According to him, marriage has been watered down by materialism, a concept borrowed from Western countries like the United States and Britain revolving around Valentine’s Day.

“Either way, Valentine’s is not a Christian celebration. On such a day, people just want to show off to their lovers. Our traditional Christian ways have been infiltrated by such practices,” he said.

“Marriage, no matter where or when it takes place, should be sacred and is meant to last forever,” he added.