Galentine’s Day is a holiday celebrated by showering your friends with love. This day, often celebrated on Feb. 13, is geared towards honoring friendship, most often female.

The history of Galentine’s Day started on March 20, 2014, in an episode of “Parks & Recreation” as the main character celebrated this imaginary holiday with a group of her closest friends. After the episode aired, the popularity of this holiday soared with businesses creating special promotions to honor this day.

For many single women, Galentine’s Day fills the loneliness felt on Valentine’s Day. It gives them a chance to recognize the importance of their friends and celebrate the impact these relationships have had on their lives.

Freshman Sophia Sharma said, “I think it’s important to celebrate friendships because they are an extremely important part of everyone’s lives and they are a relationship that is often overlooked and less celebrated than others.”

This holiday allows women to recognize and celebrate their achievements in solo endeavors or within friendships. It also fills the gap for a holiday dedicated to friendship, an important relationship many people have.

These relationships are important for many people because friends stand by your side and support you when needed. Often, people, especially students, aren’t able to spend quality time with friends due to school or extracurriculars.

Statistics from the website National Today show 47% of women wish they could spend more time with their best friends. This number gives further insight into why many people feel the need to celebrate Galentine’s Day and to use this time to spend with their friends.

Sophomore Saanvi Marakani said, “[My friends and I] haven’t been able to hang out because school gets in the way a lot of the time.”

Galentine’s Day provides an opportunity to see their friends and get together. Parties thrown for Galentine’s Day are aimed at acknowledging friendships by doing activities to show how much they mean to each other. Many use this time to just hang out with their friends and strengthen bonds that may have been lost throughout the year.

Typical Galentine’s Day activities include going out to eat with friends, making crafts such as pottery or memory boxes, and simply enjoying the company of those closest to you.

As life gets busy, people utilize these types of days to slow down and show appreciation for those who have been with them through their hard times and Galentine’s Day is a holiday that lets people do this.