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Lupercalia, also known as Lupercal, was a pastoral festival of Ancient Rome observed annually on February 15 to purify the city, promoting health and fertility. [1] Lupercalia was also known as dies Februatus , after the purification instruments called februa , the basis for the month named Februarius .
A festival said to be of Juno Februata or Juno Februa, though it does not appear in Ovid's Fasti, was described by Alban Butler, famous as the author of Butler's Lives of Saints, who presented an aspect of the Roman Lupercalia as a festival of a "Juno Februata", under the heading of February 14:
Livy also says that it became the longstanding practice in Rome that whenever a shower of stones was reported, a festival of nine days would be ordered in response. [25] Another irregular festival of note is the Secular Games. Over the course of several days there were sacrifices, entertainers, and games hosted by the state, attempting to be ...
For about a thousand years, starting in the 5th century B.C., Romans celebrated a festival on the 15th of February called Lupercalia, commemorating the founding of Rome and the fertility god Lupercus.
One theory about the origins of Valentine’s Day is that it is timed to coincide with the ancient Roman festival Lupercalia, which was celebrated from February 13-15. The festival was held in mid ...
The Lupercal (from Latin lupa "female wolf") was a cave at the southwest foot of the Palatine Hill in Rome, located somewhere between the temple of Magna Mater and the Sant'Anastasia al Palatino. [1] In the legend of the founding of Rome , Romulus and Remus were found there by the she-wolf who suckled them until they were rescued by the ...
Pope Gelasius I had much earlier written a letter to senator Andromachus, who wanted to reestablish the Lupercalia for purification. The so-called Gelasian Sacramentary mentions the celebration of the Presentation of Jesus, supporting the conclusion that Gelasius substituted a Christian festival for a pagan one.
The celebration of Saint Valentine is not known to have had any romantic connotations until Chaucer's poetry about "Valentine's Day" in the 14th century, some seven hundred years after celebration of Lupercalia is believed to have ceased. [31] Lupercalia was a festival local to the city of Rome.