Love is in the air! Our modern Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love and affection. Today, it may be an over-commercialized Hallmark holiday, but the tradition of Valentine’s Day goes back much further, all the way to ancient times.
Let’s go back:
The Romans had a holiday called Lupercalia. This archaic and pastoral celebration took place every year between February 13th and 15th.
Let’s go back even further:
According to legend, the Lupercalia festival was brought to Rome by Evander, who founded the city of Pallantium at the site of Rome hundreds of years before Romulus and Remus came along. Evander was from a region in Greece called Arcadia, and may have drawn inspiration for Lupercalia from the Ancient Greek festival of Lykaia. This festival (from lykos, meaning “wolf”) was a nocturnal ritual that took place every year in May. It may have involved cannibalism and werewolves, but we’re not really sure.
Flash forward:
The Roman holiday gets its name from the cave on the southwest side of the Palatine Hill in Rome called lupercal where, legend has it, Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf (lupa). Lupercalia was meant to be a celebration of fertility and health. Juno was the patron deity, and the cult even had its own priesthood- two young men called luperci.
Here’s how the ceremony would go: After the sacrifice of a goat and a dog, the luperci would approach the altar. Their foreheads would be marked with the sacrificial blood, and then, in order to purify the city, they would run around naked or half-naked, striking women with thongs made from animal skins. These instruments of purification called februa, which is actually where we get the word “February.” These lashes were believed to increase fertility and ease childbirth.
Flash forward again:
There are several early Christian martyrs named Valentinus who are honored on St. Valentine’s day, but the most significant is Saint Valentine of Rome. He was killed on February 14th, 269 AD. His death wasn’t officially commemorated, however, until 496 AD, when Pope Gelasius I combined St. Valentine’s Day with Lupercalia. Why? Basically, he wanted to extinguish the pagan ritual once and for all.
It worked. Kind of.
The nature of the holiday shifted again with Chaucer and Shakespeare in the 14th century. It became a representation of medieval romances and courtship. This is when it became customary to exchange handmade paper cards called “Valentines.”
In the early 20th century, Hallmark Cards Co. began producing Valentines en masse, changing the holiday forever.
So, now you’re up to speed! We know the Romans and Greeks were a bit weird. But is sacrificing a goat to ensure the health of a community really any weirder than spending money on heart-shaped cards or ready-made boxes of chocolates or bundles of plastic roses? We’ll let you decide.
If you want to read more about the history of Valentine’s Day, check out these sites!
https://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day