sexuality , wildness , and drunkenness : For century , Lupercalia was a major Roman party , surviving well into the rise of Christianity . And reasonably presently , someone on your Facebook feed is likely go to claim that this holiday give rise to our modernValentine ’s Day . So what ’s the true account behind the ancient Roman fete and its coitus to candy hearts ?
1. Lupercalia featured odd sacrifices.
Every year on February 15 , the festival begin by going to the Lupercal ( the legendary internet site where Romulus and Remus weresuckled ) and sacrificing a dog and a Capricorn . According to scholar Keith Hopkins , this was unusual in and of itself , because pigs , sheep , and bull were most usually used assacrificial animals . The Oxford Classical Dictionary explains that next , the blood of these creature " was smeared with a knife on the os frontale of two youthfulness ( who were obliged to laugh ) , and wiped with woolen dipped in milk . "
2. Whippings were also on the Lupercalia menu.
After the blood / wool excitement , Lupercalia ’s chief magnet was the runners . The sacrifice goat ’s pelt was shorten into thongs and ( mayhap — see below ) girdles to be worn by the athletes . Then two sets of runners ( athirdset would be added after ) would make their way through the street of the city , whipping whomever they met on their way . According tosome accounts , women would volunteer to be whipped because it was believed to bring fertility and make the giving birth process easier for them . But as the years passed , things change ; by the 3rd century , the voluntary nature of this ritual seemed to be less voluntary . Hopkins claims that a photomosaic featuring a Lupercalia celebrationfeatures“two men forcibly apply a naked woman face upwards , while a third valet , one-half naked , whips her thighs … The men ’s boozy hilarity is match by the beaten woman ’s obvious pain . "
3. People may have been naked—or maybe not.
One long - standing disputation about Lupercalia is the degree of nudity . There are definite references tonudus , but that does n’t of necessity meannaked . It could justmean“having one ’s main garment removed , ” perhaps in acknowledgment to the runner fatigue goat skin loincloths . But other writer were explicit in mention nakedness as part of the festivities . It remains anopen questionwhether the festival was PG- , R- , or decade - rated .
4. It’s not quite clear who or what Lupercalia was celebrating.
Accordingto the 1st 100 BCE scholar Marcus Terentius Varro , " the Luperci [ are so called ] because at the Lupercalia they sacrifice at the Lupercal … the Lupercalia are so called because [ that is when ] the Luperci sacrifice at the Lupercal . " This improbably unhelpful orbitual definition has direct to centuries of debate about who , or what , the fete was in reality celebrating .
Ovid suggested that it was for Faunus ( a Roman pastoral god ) ; Livysaidit was Inuus ( the god of fertility ) ; and Varro said it was a wolfgoddessnamed Luperca . Traditionally , the two set of runners are related to the mythological founders of Rome — Romulus and Remus — who were give suck by a wolf . But confusingly , Livy says that the twins were ambushed by banditswhile celebratingthe Lupercalia , leading some assimilator to suggest the festivalpredatesRomulus and Remus .
As South African assimilator P.M.W. Tennantobservedwhile discuss Romulus and Remus and the Lupercalia , “ most of the theme put forward here are obviously extremely hypothetical — as all theories concerning the Lupercalia are tie to be . "
5. Lupercalia is when Julius Caesar was offered the crown.
Today , Lupercalia is probably most famous for whathappenedon February 15 , 44 BCE . That day a “ bare , perfumed , drunk ” Mark Antony was one of the moon-curser while Julius Caesar watch the proceedings from a crapper . Antony went up to Julius Caesar with a diadem ( atypeof jacket crown or headband ) and — in what later historian have said was almost certainly scripted — attempted to give it to Caesar and proclaim him king .
The bunch ’s initial response to this action was tepid , but when Caesar refused the crown they cheer . Antony try again , Caesar reject again , and the crowd exploded . Caesar ordered the crown select to the Temple of Jupiter because Jupiter was Rome ’s one king . The purpose of this exercise has beendebated . Some purport Antony did it on his own to either blandish Caesar or block him , while at the clip it was thought that Caesar orchestrated the stunt as a mode to screen the water for whether the multitude would take on a male monarch . Either way , it did n’t really work out for Caesar ; he was assassinated one month later .
6. A Pope criticized the Lupercalia Festival.
One of Lupercalia ’s most noteworthy features is how long itsurvived . We screw this because circa 494 CE , Pope Gelasius wrote a letter criticizing Christian participation in it . He commented on how in the olden days nobles would run as Lupercali and strike au naturel matron , and innovative participants should be uncoerced to likewise die hard raw . By Gelasius ’s time this had become heavily change , lead him toproclaim“your own bashfulness ought itself to instruct you that the Lupercalia is a public crime , not salvation and the cult of the theology , regarding which no wise to man would blush . Rather the Lupercalia is an official document of depravity , which your idea , bearing testimonial against itself , blush to fulfill . ”
The varsity letter is interesting tohistoriansfor many reasons . First , because Gelasius flat - out describes many of the less comely rites , and it also allows historian to analyze how Lupercalia interchange with metre and alter with the sensing of the author . For instance , Gelasius indicated that by the 5th century depleted stratum were the runner , whereas important figures like Mark Antony take part in early events .
7. Despite what you’ve heard, Lupercalia probably has nothing to do with Valentine’s Day.
Many pop culture websites and books hold that Pope Gelasius replaced Lupercalia with a fete commit to St. Valentine of Rome ( or possibly of Terni — the soma ismysterious ) who had his feast day on February 14 . But as British writer Mark Forsyth onceobserved , " It is vitally important when writing about custom to commend that there are only 365 days in the year … convergence is not significance . "
Most mediaeval historiographer fit in there’sno evidencethat Pope Gelasius replaced Lupercalia with any festival whatsoever ( a interchangeable call that Candlemas replaced Lupercalia is also without virtue ) with learner Jack Oruch proclaiming “ at no point does Gelasius talk of compromise or of adapt any pagan customs ” and another professor tellingHistory.com : " It just drives me half-baked that the Roman story keep circulating and circulating . " Meanwhile , popular fable that Lupercalia featured girls write their names on paper that would be tie from a box by boy arelikelyan eighteenth - one C invention .
Most mainstream historians instead project that Valentine ’s Day and romance became associated with each other only in the late 14th century , and specifically because of a Geoffrey Chaucer poem bid " Parliament of Fowls " ( or " Parlement of Foules " ) .
8. Valentine’s Day might not even be on February 14.
In Chaucer ’s poem , heproclaimed(in New spelling ) “ For this was on Saint Valentine ’s day / When every hoot came there to choose his mate . ” But some historian have remark that February 14 is still very cold in England and is unlikely to be a salutary bird conjugation season . In the 1980ssome historian , led by Andy Kelly of UCLA , began proposing that the " Valentine " Chaucer was referring to was St. Valentine of Genoa , whose feast day come on May 2 or May 3 ( rootage differ ) , alternatively of Valentine of Rome . This is especially relevant because King Richard II and Anne of Bohemiaconcludedtheir marriage treaty on May 2 , meaning Chaucer may have chosen Valentine by just picking out a random saint whose day fall on the correct day in May . Over the eld , the affiliation with May weakened and the day migrated to the more famed Valentine of Rome .
Other scholars objected , pointing out that there are many references to fertility rites and fete in February — such as Lupercalia — and that Chaucer may have been discuss the more famous Valentine of Rome and February 14 .
" In chivalric studies there is neither consensus nor continuing disputation on the interrogation which St. Valentine Chaucer had in mind , " Professor Steven Justice of the University of California , Berkeley , tells Mental Floss . " The grounds just has n’t stick out any conclusive arguments one manner or the other , and unless one is ( a ) convert that the feast , whichever it is , identifies the diachronic juncture of the verse form , if it had one , and ( bacillus ) interested in that historical occasion , the question does not seem very eventful . One would like an result just because one does n’t like unanswered questions , but it ’s not well-defined that much hangs on it . "
One affair is clear : Today , whether you celebrate Lupercalia or St. Valentine of Rome ’s twenty-four hour period in February or St. Valentine of Genoa in May , it ’s secure allow for out the goat sacrifices and running naked through the streets .
This story has been updated for 2021 .
