Lupercalia/Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day everyone! Or should i really say Happy Lupercalia ? Lupercalia was a holiday celebrated by the Roman Empire and roughly started during the 6th century and possibly had origins from the festival Februa . Traditionally this ancient festival was a three day event from Feburary 13th-15th. Lupercalia was used as a fertility ritual as well as for banishing unwanted spirits from city grounds. During this time the city was washed with lovemaking and interesting rituals, including animal sacrifice and the removal of animal intestines. The intestines were made to hit women with and were suppose to prompt the bearing of a child. The priests would sacrifice the goat, dog, or bull and begin making thin strips from hide, intestines, and hair, which then were blessed and given to the young men. One interesting ritual i found that women used during this time was serving menstrual fluids to their men in food or drinks to entice them into love making. Its safe to say most modern pagans don't celebrate this festival anymore, but still interesting to read up on. Hope you enjoyed the quick history lesson, feel free to add in. Blessed be!

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/lupercalia

https://bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/the-potentially-pagan-roots-of-valentines-day

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This thread has been moved to Misc Topics from General Info.

I will wish you a fun Lupercalia [not valentines day though, I've never liked celebrating it and after today at work I'm sick of it. Long irrelevant story, but the short version is just because I wear the same read hairpin every day doesn't mean today it's for the holiday. It wasn't yesterday and it won't be tomorrow so don't insist it is]

It is interesting to hear the history of holidays [everything boils down to paganism... and fertility celebrations come to think of it] the one most people know is Saint Valentine marrying lovers in secret and got beheaded on February 14 for it [and I heard once red became a colour symbol for the day because of valentines blood which idk how true that is but that would be a super dark fact for a lovers holiday. Take that candy and card companies]

I think there is some Pagans who would celebrate it [particularly those who follow a roman pagan path] but like Saturnalia it's probably a small percentage compared to the major holiday of the time.