*** "Modern attempts to relate the Lupercalia to Valentine's Day because of the mere (approximate) date seem very suspect to me. That the two occasionally get equated seems rather to be an indication of late 20c mentality, according to which a lovers' festival must necessarily derive from the titillations of ancient fertility and flagellation by goats. More to the point, there is not the slightest shred of historical evidence for the connection. In the 5c, Pope Gelasius instituted the feast of St. Valentine (possibly a bishop of Terni in Umbria, although there are several other candidates), but we have no record of his motives: if you can see any relation between the celebration of the Lupercalia as you read it above and anyone's celebration of Valentine's Day, you're a better man than I, or you have some exceedingly odd friends. (For a perfect example of this kind of projection, though, see this fun article in the San Francisco Gate; it even quotes the article you've just read.)
"From the purification of shepherds and fields (not, by the way, of women) to the Purification of the Virgin Mary is another unwarranted leap made by some, on the tenuous grounds of coincidence and closeness of date, since the Christian feast is celebrated on the 2d of February. Fortunately, the odd notion is easily disposed of by a glance at the Bible and a calendar: see the Catholic Encyclopedia article Candlemas. This is not to say that in the decaying world of paganism and rising Christianity, there were not connections; for a careful, close look at them, see The Lupercalia in the Fifth Century (CP 26:60‑69).
"Finally, leaving aside the vagaries of those who seek to reduce Christianity to a hotch-potch of pagan rituals — in case you haven't noticed, gentle reader, we're dealing with an agenda — the Lupercalia themselves have been described as including a "lottery" in which young girls would write their names on slips of paper and young men draw them out of a box (or vice-versa), under the supervision of the Luperci: this is sheer fabrication, and a recent one at that. There is no ancient witness to any of it. It is not true.
"There are a lot of things we don't know. Many people, abhorring a void, fill it up with nonsense." ***
I would add to this that we know very little about the Lupercalla from original sources. Most of the sources are from late antiquity when the festival had already lost much of its original function. The earliest written sources are from the time of the empire. Livy only mentions the festival once as far as I can remember. One of our main sources is Plutarch, esp. in his "Life of Marc Antony" and he wrote his life more than 70 years after the events he relates.
These kinds of festivals were not uncommon in the Mediterranean region.
Most of the things we think we know about history reduce to an elaboration of legend. In fact most of what we think we know about everything is mere convenient confabulation.
Jerry Monaco
On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 12:10 AM, B. <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
> [Here are the blood-soaked, unsavory, sacrificial
> pagan origins of Valentine's Day. Well, the whipping
> part might not be unsavory to some, and is rather mod
> again, but the blood-smearing and sacrificial elements
> might. This *almost* makes me as happy as the demonic
> Krampusse hellbeasts that are still part of German
> Xmas rituals -- but not quite as happy, unless we can
> get werewolves involved.
>
> So: Valentine's Day was originally Lupercalia - the
> celebration of the wolf. -B.]
>
>
> -----------------------
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia
>
>
> Lupercalia was a very ancient, possibly pre-Roman
> pastoral festival, observed on February 13 through
> February 15 to avert evil spirits and purify the city,
> releasing health and fertility. The Lupercalia was
> believed in antiquity to have some connection with the
> Ancient Greek festival of the Arcadian Lycaea (from
> Ancient Greek: ????? – lykos, "wolf", Latin lupus) and
> the worship of Lycaean Pan, the Greek equivalent to
> Faunus, as instituted by Evander.
>
> [...]
>
> The festival began with the sacrifice by the Luperci
> (or the flamen dialis) of two male goats and a dog.
> Next two patrician young Luperci were led to the
> altar, to be anointed on their foreheads with the
> sacrificial blood, which was wiped off the bloody
> knife with wool soaked in milk, after which they were
> expected to smile and laugh; the smearing of the
> forehead with blood probably refers to human sacrifice
> originally practised at the festival.
>
> The sacrificial feast followed, after which the
> Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the victims,
> which were called Februa, dressed themselves in the
> skins of the sacrificed goats, in imitation of
> Lupercus, and ran round the walls of the old Palatine
> city, the line of which was marked with stones, with
> the thongs in their hands in two bands, striking the
> people who crowded near. Girls and young women would
> line up on their route to receive lashes from these
> whips. This was supposed to ensure fertility, prevent
> sterility in women and ease the pains of childbirth.
> This tradition itself may survive (Christianised, and
> shifted to Spring) in certain ritual Easter Monday
> whippings.
>
> The Lupercalia in the fifth century
>
> By the fifth century, when the public performance of
> pagan rites had been outlawed, a nominally Christian
> Roman populace still clung to the Lupercalia in the
> time of Gelasius (494-96).
>
> [...]
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog is Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and Culture http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
His fiction, poetry, weblog is Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
Notes, Quotes, Images - From some of my reading and browsing http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/