Valentine’s Day is met with obscenely high expectations. Women in particular spend hours worrying about what the holiday has in store for them. It’s a day filled with potential; expectations for some even include promise of marriage. Surprisingly, humans aren’t the only specimens who feel compelled to celebrate undying love on February 14th. According to an article published by the BBC yesterday, Valentine’s Day is the date set for an incredibly unique wedding. This publicized union is not between celebrities, but between animals. A ram and a deer will be wed at a zoo in the southwest region of China. Furthermore, tickets to the event will be sold to the general public for approximately ten dollars. The love between the two animals has been arduous; zoo officials separated the two a few months previously. The unconventional love affair will be solidified in matrimony, as both animals will be dressed in personalized wedding outfits.
With dogs allegedly procuring high school diplomas, mentioned in a TIME article published on Saturday, and animals having formal weddings, the line between human conventions and animal ones is blurring. Furthermore, many will question how same-sex marriage is accused of destroying the sanctity of marriage, but a ram and deer validating their relationship is perfectly acceptable. Nevertheless, for many in our generation, marriage is merely a technicality – a business agreement to be entered into for property acquisition or to consolidate assets. For advocates against marriage, this development will add justification to their views. For those who still cling on to the romantic elements of spending the rest of your life with someone, the wedding will merely serve as nothing more than a quirky anecdote.
The wedding between the ram and deer reaffirms that love comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, while simultaneously forcing us to question what marriage means, to animals and to humans. Valentine’s Day seems to be significant for all walks of life, whether they are capable of expressing their devotion in words, or in the case of the Yunnan Provincial Wildlife Park, incoherent sounds from animals. For the sake of honoring what is hailed as the most romantic holiday of the year, we can only wish them well in married life.
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