Region Braces for National I Love You Day, a Holiday Born From a 2015 Movie Marketing Campaign That Nobody Has Been Able to Cancel

THE REGION — Residents across the Region awoke Wednesday to find that it is, once again, National I Love You Day, an annual observance that sources confirm was not handed down by any government, church or greeting-card authority, but began on October 14, 2015, as a social media hashtag promoting a Filipino romantic drama called Everyday I Love You.

The film’s marketing team asked people to post the hashtag. People did. Then they never stopped. Eleven years later, no one has located the off switch.

By 7 a.m., the line at the Corner Drug card aisle stretched past the seasonal candy. Shelves that held a full stock of “Thinking of You” cards Tuesday night were picked clean by 7:40, leaving only a single card reading “Congratulations on Your Retirement,” which this reporter observed being purchased by a visibly panicked man “for my wife, it is close enough.”

“I did not know about it until my phone told me,” said Gary Lundquist, 52, who was seen sitting in his parked truck outside his mother’s house rehearsing the phrase aloud. “I tell her I love her. I do. I just usually say it in the form of fixing her gutters.”

Not everyone was caught off guard. Edna and Walt Haverkamp, married 61 years and believed to be the Region’s longest-running couple, said they have told each other “I love you” every morning since 1965 and would like to know why there is suddenly a day for it.

“We did not need a movie to tell us,” said Mrs. Haverkamp, 83. “But if the young people need a reminder on the calendar, I suppose that is fine. Walt still needs a reminder to take out the trash, and he loves the trash.”

At Town Hall, the council’s regularly scheduled meeting on the Maple and Third stop sign, now in its 14th year, briefly paused when Councilman Dwight Pell moved to formally state his love for the stop sign. The motion died for lack of a second. The HOA president, reached for comment, said he loves “everyone in this community equally,” a claim this reporter is not in a position to verify and frankly doubts.

Experts say the safest way to observe National I Love You Day is to say the words out loud to someone who matters, before 11:59 p.m., and preferably not by forwarding them a graphic.

The Dispatch confirmed with several residents that the phrase still works on days that are not National I Love You Day.

Marjorie’s Recipe: “I Love You” Butter Cookies

Cream 1 cup softened butter with ½ cup sugar. Mix in 1 egg yolk and 1 teaspoon vanilla, then 2 cups flour and a pinch of salt. Roll, cut into hearts, and bake at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes. Give them to someone and say the words. The cookies are optional. The words are not.