If you don’t like it, you can blame Herbert Birch Kingston, a philanthropist and candy company employee who had a great idea in 1922. The Cleveland, Ohio man wanted to bring some happiness into the lives of those less fortunate which included orphans, newspaper boys, those in the hospitals, and shut-ins. This kind gesture was known as Sweetest Day.
See? For all you grumps and curmudgeons who blamed it on Hallmark, you got it wrong!
“The movement was popularized by movie star Ann Pennington, who distributed boxes of candy to 2,200 newspaper boys to express her gratitude for their hard work. Another movie star by the name of Theda Bara gave boxes of candy to 10,000 patients in local hospitals, and to anyone who attended screenings of her film in theaters.”1
The celebration of this day is “most common in the Great Lakes Region, celebrated in states such as Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. However, over time, other areas have also adopted the holiday including parts of the Northeast and Florida.”2 Should we celebrate it? Well, since we are Ohioans, it originated in our state, and is considered a Midwestern holiday, it seems that it almost behooves us to celebrate.
Somewhere along the past 102 years, though, the emphasis has changed. For those who
celebrate it, Sweetest Day has become another holiday of romance where those who are married or are in serious relationships take the opportunity to celebrate their “significant other.” It’s a second Valentine’s Day. However, the day can still be used to show that you care for someone without the romantic overtures.
In 1965, singer Marvin Gaye crooned, “How sweet it is to be loved by you.” This isn’t an endorsement of Marvin Gaye or his genre of music. It’s simply an observation. Can you say to anyone that it is sweet to be loved by them? Again, we don’t have to put a romantic spin on “love” in order to answer the question in the affirmative. We have brothers and sisters in Christ, all who are told to “love one another.” (1 John 4:7-8) That’s SWEET!
We have a Savior who loves us. John 13:1 says, “Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” This love is extended to all the unsaved of the world. There is the familiar verse of Scripture found in John 3:16 that reminds us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That’s SWEET!
And, there is the aspect of romantic love that is God blessed and ordained. Ecclesiastes 9:9 says, “Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun…” That’s SWEET!
Love really is a sweet thing. To think that God created us with the capacity to be filled with love and to have the ability to give that love to others is remarkable! It’s a sweet gift that we can celebrate this Sweetest Day.
I close today’s devotional with Paul’s prayerful desire for Thessalonica. It’s a prayer we can all utter for ourselves today. “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.” (1 Thessalonians 3:12)
1https://www.christmascentral.com/resources/holiday-histories/history-of-sweetest-day/
2https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2023/10/20/sweetest-day-2023-saturday-october-21-holiday-midwest/71254130007/
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