Valentines and what it once was!

We all know of Valentine’s Day! A day to spend with that special person and to celebrate your love.

Did you know that before Valentine’s Day it was called Lupercalia?

Lupercalia was an ancient pagan festival. This was the original Valentines but was celebrated very differently. This celebration has no exact origin but has been dated back to the 6th century B.C.

Lupercalia was a bloody, violent and sexual event. It contained animal sacrific, random match making and coupling in the hopes to ward of evil spirits and infertility.

Here is the story from a history page I found.

According to Roman legend, the ancient King Amulius ordered Romulus and Remus—his twin nephews and founders of Rome—to be thrown into the Tiber River to drown in retribution for their mother’s broken vow of celibacy. A servant took pity on them, however, and placed them inside a basket on the river instead. The river-god carried the basket and the brothers downriver to a wild fig tree where it became caught in the branches. The brothers were then rescued and cared for by a she-wolf in a den at the base of Palatine Hill where Rome was founded. The twins were later adopted by a shepherd and his wife and learned their father’s trade. After killing the uncle who’d ordered their death, they found the cave den of the she-wolf who’d nurtured them and named it Lupercal. It’s thought Lupercalia took place to honor the she-wolf and please the Roman fertility god Lupercus.

Ritual Sacrifices!

The ritual was performed by Luperci, a group of Roman priests, and they would sacrifice male goats that represented sexuality and would also sacrifice a dog. The blood of the sacrifices was then smeared on the foreheads of the naked Luperci with the bloody sacrificial knife. The blood was then wiped from their foreheads with a piece of milk soaked wool as they laughed.

Lupercal Feast!

After the sacrifices there would be a feast. When the feast was over the Luperci would cut strips of the goat hide, known as thongs or februa, of the newley sacrificed goats.

People would then run round naked or nearly naked and would whip the women with the thongs made from the goats hide.

Men would randomly chose a womans name from a pot to be coupled with them for the rest of the festival. These couples often stayed together till the next festival and many would fall in love and get married.

The idea of doing this ritual naked changed as it lost popularity. Women were then whipped only on the hands by fully clothed men.

Christianity involvement!

Pope Gelasius I eliminated the celebration of Lupercalia and declared February 14 as a day to celebrate the martyrdom of St Valentine instead.

Here is the story’s of Saint Valentine.

One February 14 during the 3rd century A.D., a man named Valentine was executed by the Roman Emperor Claudius II after being imprisoned for assisting persecuted Christians and secretly marrying Christian couples in love.

As the story goes, during Valentine’s imprisonment he tried converting Claudius to Christianity. Claudius became enraged and ordered Valentine to reject his faith or be killed. He refused to forsake his faith, so Valentine was beheaded.

Legend also tells of another story that happened during Valentine’s imprisonment after he tutored a girl named Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer. The legend states God restored Julia’s sight after she and Valentine prayed together. On the eve of his execution, Valentine supposedly penned a note to Julia and signed it, “From your Valentine.”

It was never meant to be celebrated for love or passion and most modern biblical scholars warn Christian’s not to celebrate Valentine’s Day at all as it’s thought to be based on the pagan ritual Lupercalia.

Valentine’s Day does use some of the the Lupercalia symbols, whether is intentional or not, like the colour red which represents the blood of the sacrifices and the colour white which represented the milk used to clean the blood.

Even though Lupercalia isn’t celebrated by many there are a few people who do celebrate this privately.

I hope you all have a fantastic Valentine’s Day with you’re special person. If you don’t have a special person take this time to give yourself some self love.

Speak to you all soon!