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Add this to the hundred other things which do not make sense.
Halloween? (which is mixed with Saint Barbara), Black Friday? (sans Thanksgiving), proposing while bending a knee? (thank you instagram), bachelor parties? (confused with the regular parties prior to marriage), proposals to proms? (heck since when did proms with limousines were on the map!)... check, check, check, and the list continues. Traditions, and social happenings we import, not knowing their origins, social signification, anthropological meanings.
I do understand that certain things become crazes (ice bucket challenge anyone?) and what used to take some time to go around the world takes now a split of second through social media posts. Yet at times I cannot but wonder - do we understand what we celebrate or do?
Several years back, mothers of uber rich families rented a bus on Halloween so as for their kids to go trick and treating throughout Beirut. The religion of the kids seemed not to matter in the process. A lot of Lebanese brides today abide by the "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" on their wedding day. What this means, I am sure no bride can tell me.
Here is a fun fact: diamonds are the only commodity that does abide by economic laws. Let me explain: The more the scarcity of the good, the higher the price. Yet emeralds are more scarce than diamonds! Which one is more expensive? You tell me. However De Beers the diamond giant marketed the "a diamond is forever" (coined by the A.N. Ayer ad agency - specifically copywriter Frances Gerety - Advertising Age proclaimed it "slogan of the century in 1999) slogan and the rest is history.
The scheme was so subtle that they made it like only diamonds are associated with romance. In a memorandum from the agency to the client these words appear: "We spread the word of diamonds worn by stars of screen and stage, by wives and daughters of political leaders, by any woman who can make the grocer's wife and the mechanic's sweetheart say 'I wish I had what she has.'"
So there, at least you will understand why you picked a damn diamond ring to propose now!