Dr. Heather Lynn
  • About
  • Interviews
  • Books
    • The Annunaki Connection
    • Evil Archaeology
    • The Sumerian Controversy
  • Personal Blog
  • Digging Deeper

♥Happy Lupercalia!

2/14/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
​As with many modern holidays, it is widely theorized by scholars that the true origins of Valentine’s Day is actually steeped in a very ancient Roman pastoral fertility festival, observed on February 13 through 15. The festival was called Lupercalia.
 
The belief was that the goddess Juno Februata (where the name February comes from) inflicted her "love fever" on the youth. Lupercalia “festivities” involved an orgy and sexual excesses, the sacrifice of goats and dogs, and the burning of salt meal-cakes prepared by the Vestal Virgins. Young men would randomly pick love notes of eligible young women from a container, after which they would try to guess who wrote the notes. Another practice was to smear the foreheads of youths with the blood of a sacrificed dog and goat and send them off with a priest around the perimeter of the city, whipping women along the way with strips of the goat’s skin. This act was to protect the women from infertility.
 
For years the Christian church tried to suppress the festival of Lupercalia. Pope Gelasius changed Lupercalia from the 15th to the 14th and renamed it after the legendary St. Valentine in an attempt to redefine the pagan celebration. Even after the church replaced Lupercus with St. Valentine, the Lupercalia festival continued relatively unchanged except for the sexual excesses.
 
Though much has changed since the days of Lupercalia, in elementary schools across the country, children still put concealed notes in a box much as the ancient Romans did. Some traditions are well worth keeping!

*Originally posted on Blogger. For more 2013-2015 blog archives, click here. 
0 Comments

    RSS Feed


    Categories

    All
    Agriculture
    Alternative Research
    Ancient Civilizations
    Ancient Egypt
    Ancient Technology
    Ancient Wisdom
    Anunnaki
    Archaeology
    Archaeology News
    Astronomy
    Bitcoin
    Bizarre
    Blockchain
    Book Recommendations
    Books
    Cryptocurrency
    Economic History
    Egypt
    Evil Archaeology
    Exoarchaeology
    Forbidden Archaeology
    Funny
    Future Tech
    Halloween
    Human Antiquity
    Lost Technology
    Mars
    Mummy
    Natufian
    Nibiru
    Recommendations
    Science
    Space
    STAR
    Technology
    The Final Frontier
    Turkey
    Weird
    WTF


    Archives

    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    February 2013

    *Blog archives from 2013-2015 can be found here. 
Picture
Copyright © 2020, Heather Lynn. All rights reserved.
Picture
Disclaimer
Privacy Policy
Press
  • About
  • Interviews
  • Books
    • The Annunaki Connection
    • Evil Archaeology
    • The Sumerian Controversy
  • Personal Blog
  • Digging Deeper