Who Put the Gal in Galentine’s Day?

Some madeupical holidays last only one season, like the rare confluence known as Thanksgivvukah, which occurred in 2013 and won’t come around again for more than 79,000 years. Some take years or even decades to gain momentum: Kwanzaa, for instance, was invented in 1966 but didn’t receive presidential acknowledgment until 1997.

And then there’s Galentine’s Day, which has been celebrated each February 13 since its introduction in 2010, and which has grown in popularity — and in marketing clout — ever since.

Parks and Recreation Galentine’s Day: The Official Guide to Friendship, Fun, and Cocktails, published by Simon & Schuster in December 2022 — almost 13 years after the “Galentine’s Day” episode aired.

Like Chrismukkah and Festivus before it, Galentine’s Day was invented by television writers — in this case, by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, creators of Parks and Recreation Season 2, Episode 16, which originally aired on February 14, 2010. In the episode, our heroine, Leslie Knope — the world’s most upbeat and energetic civil servant — invites her mother and her women friends to breakfast on February 13, the day before Valentine’s Day. It’s “ladies celebrating ladies,” Leslie (Amy Poehler) chirps.

The episode was so popular that Galentine’s Day made repeat appearances in Season 4 and Season 6. And it began spreading throughout real-life culture as well.

Valentine’s Day is the number-four holiday in the U.S., consumer-spending-wise, following the end-of-year holidays, Black Friday, and Halloween. So it…