{"id":500,"date":"2019-02-14T08:00:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T13:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/?p=500"},"modified":"2019-02-14T08:35:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T13:35:06","slug":"classical-origins-of-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/classical-origins-of-valentines-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Classical Origins of Valentine’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
“Lupercalia”- Andrea Camassei, 1635<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Love is in the air! Our modern Valentine\u2019s Day is a celebration of love and affection. Today, it may be an over-commercialized Hallmark holiday, but the tradition of Valentine\u2019s Day goes back much further, all the way to ancient times.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go back:<\/span><\/p>\n

The Romans had a holiday called Lupercalia. This archaic and pastoral celebration took place every year between February 13th and 15th. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go back even further:<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/em>, meaning \u201cwolf\u201d) was a nocturnal ritual that took place every year in May. It may have involved cannibalism and werewolves, but we\u2019re not really sure.<\/p>\n

Flash forward:<\/span><\/p>\n

The Roman holiday gets its name from the cave on the southwest side of the Palatine Hill in Rome called lupercal<\/em> where, legend has it, Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf (lupa<\/em>). 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the ceremony would go: After the sacrifice of a goat and a dog, the luperci<\/em> 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,<\/em> which is actually where we get the word \u201cFebruary.\u201d These lashes were believed to increase fertility and ease childbirth.<\/p>\n

Flash forward again:<\/span><\/p>\n

There are several early Christian martyrs named Valentinus who are honored on St. Valentine\u2019s day, but the most significant is Saint Valentine of Rome. He was killed on February 14th, 269 AD. His death wasn\u2019t 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. <\/span><\/p>\n

It worked. Kind of.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cValentines.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the early 20th century, Hallmark Cards Co. began producing Valentines en masse, changing the holiday forever. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, now you\u2019re 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\u2019ll let you decide.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you want to read more about the history of Valentine\u2019s Day, check out these sites!<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.thevintagenews.com\/2017\/02\/06\/the-roman-festival-lupercalia-is-thought-to-be-the-origins-of-valentines-day-where-men-sacrificed-goats-and-made-whips-from-their-skins-while-women-would-line-up-to-receive-lashes-as-part-o\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2011\/02\/14\/133693152\/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love is in the air! Our modern Valentine\u2019s Day is a celebration of love and affection. Today, it may be an over-commercialized Hallmark holiday, but the tradition of Valentine\u2019s Day goes back much further, all the way to ancient times.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9195388,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9195388"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions\/503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/amca-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}