Feast of Lupercalia

[Danustouch]

http://members.aol.com/AdytonLady/lupercalia.html

[Ball-Bhreac Ròn]

Thankyou Danu! I found a pagan calendar on a site once and it had Lupercalia, but I never found out what it was :D

[Flar's Freyja]

This year for Valentine's Day, why not dump the sentimental cards and the dozen red roses, and do something really traditional, something that harks back to the origins of this ancient commemoration?

If you want to get right into the ancient spirit of Valentine's Day, try these party tricks. First, go with your friends to a local cave and sacrifice some goats and a dog. Find two young men of good breeding and smear their foreheads with your bloody knife, then wipe the blood off with wool soaked in milk. The youths must laugh during this.

Next, your whole party should run licentiously around town wearing the skins of said goats, and infertile townsfolk will come out on the streets to be belted by you with straps of goat-skin. This will help them have children.

At some appropriate juncture of your evening, arrange to have the names of all the females written on billets, put in a container and drawn out one at a time by the males. This will enable the sexes to pair off as lovers.

Yes, the modern practice of celebrating Valentine's Day most likely has its roots in the ancient Roman celebration of the Lupercalia, when all these weird customs were indulged in. The ceremonies started in the cave where it was said Romulus and Remus, the legendary twin founders of Rome, were suckled by a she-wolf. Scholars are uncertain, but it could be from the Latin word for wolf, lupus, that the festival got its name. It could even be there is a connection with the terms wolf whistle and wolf (a rakish man), it has been suggested.

The Lupercalia was celebrated on February 15, and it is generally believed that much of its fertility and romantic significance became transferred, over the centuries, to the Feast Day of St Valentine, February 14.

More at Wilson's Book of Days (http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book_of_days.html)

[TYRRHENUS]

Scholars are uncertain, but it could be from the Latin word for wolf, lupus, that the festival got its name. It could even be there is a connection with the terms wolf whistle and wolf (a rakish man), it has been suggested.Don't forget lupanar, -aris meaning "brothel."

[Mnemosyne]

Don't forget lupanar, -aris meaning "brothel."

Good point, Tyrrhenus!

Here's an interesting site on the Lupercalia history.

http://www.lupercalia-edmonton.com/history.htm

Do you know any stories involving Clodius Pulcher and his wildness during Lupercalia? I thought that my history professor told me one years ago, but I can't find anything. I just found info on his wild ways at the Bona Dea festival?

[TYRRHENUS]

Do you know any stories involving Clodius Pulcher and his wildness during Lupercalia?Not I. Clodius Pulcher doesn't appear as more than a footnote in the books that I have. They merely relate to his opposition to Cicero. Unfortunately nothing relating to the Lupercalia.
Though I just did a search and found some info on him:
It seems the fellow changed his name from Claudius to Clodius to sound more plebian, and he must also have had some support from the people. Perhaps because he denounced his patrician rank.
But what I found that I think is most important is... now get this, are you ready? Clodius Pulcher's sister, Clodia, was actually the Lesbia of Catullus' poems. Yes THE Lesbia!

Catullus and Clodia were an item, and this ties in perfectly with Valentine's Day.
Catullus' love poem, #5 is my favorite:
Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus
rumoresque senum seueriorum
omnes unius aestimemus assis.
soles occidere et redire possunt;
nobis, cum semel occidit breuis lux,
nox est perpetua una dormienda.
da mi basia mille, deinde centum,
dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum,
dein cum milia multa fecerimus
conturbabimus illa ne sciamus
aut ne quis malus inuidere possit
cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.
We live, my Lesbia, so that we can love.
And value all the talk of stricter
old men on a single penny.
Suns can set and rise again;
for us, once our brief light has set,
there's one unending night for sleeping.
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
then another thousand, then a second hundred,
then still another thousand, then a hundred;
then, when we've made many thousands,
we'll muddle them so as not to know
or lest some jerk overlook us
knowing the total of our kisses.(Edited to remove dead link.)

[SylverStar]

Ah Lupercalia my birthday. Gotta love Romulus and Remus

[Mnemosyne]

Oh I love that Catullus poem! Thanks for sharing, Tyrrhenus. :)

[Flar's Freyja]

Since today is the actual Lupercalia, here's a bit more:

Lupercalia Festival, ancient Rome

To expiate and purify new life in the Spring. Celebrating the survival of the human herd through the perilous, hungry wolf times of Winter. The name of the month of February is derived from the Latin februare, ‘to purify’ (meant as one of the effects of fever, which has the same linguistic root).

Held at the Lupercal, the place where Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf, the Lupercalia was an annual festival held in honour of Lupercus, the Lycaean Pan (so called because he protected the flocks from wolves) ...

more at Book of Days (http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/book_of_days.html)