Should chocolates or flowers be given on Valentine's Day?

Pulcheria Chung, 18 St Mary's Canossian College

Chocolates. Think about the brand names - Meltykiss, Hershey's Kisses, Godiva - which sound

very romantic.

The sensation of chocolate melting in your mouth is simply a wonderful and sweet experience.

Flowers don't have the same effect. Sweet things always help to evoke positive feelings.

Chocolates seem to be a more suitable gift to make your loved ones happy.

Flowers are colorful and they smell nice. They are bigger in size and seem like a more substantial gift.

But flowers symbolise a short-lived and fragile kind of beauty and love.

After a few days or a week, they will wither and die.

We definitely do not want love to wither, but instead to be everlasting with every day fresh and sweet. Flowers cannot represent that sentiment.

It is a more superficial symbol of love that ends as the petals fall off.

For me, flowers only make me think about two things - allergy and bees.

Oliver Kwan, 17 Delia School of Canada

I'm more of a fan of flowers for many reasons. You can add a personal touch to flowers by growing them yourself.

Of course you can go out and buy a bouquet, but imagine you were receiving a gift. Would you rather receive candies bought from a store, or flowers grown from the ground?

It is possible to make candies yourself, but who actually knows how to these days? With flowers, you plant a seed, add water and wait. They're a lot simpler to grow and they last longer.

Candies can be eaten very quickly, but flowers can last a lot longer with the right care. All you need is a vase and water to keep them for a while, provided they were freshly cut.

But if you grow them yourself, you don't have to cut them. If I were to give flowers as a gift, I would give potted flowers.

Homegrown flowers would be the best gift for Valentine's Day.

The event has been commercialised by businesses trying to get us to spend.

Yes, you could go buy candies and let the stores make profits. Or, you could put some thought into it and show how much you care with flowers.

And that's what I am going to do today!