The Modern Valentine's Day Celebration - Originated in "The Lupercalia" a Roman Festival to a pagan god
Once Christians learn about the celebration of pagan god in which this festival is rooted they should obey God's word found in Jeremiah 10 - Learn not the ways of the heathen:
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The Lupercalia: A Roman Festival: It Developed Into the Modern Valentine's Day
By the time Augustus came into power, the Romans had forgotten which god this festival honored. Highly practical people, the Romans invented a new god to explain it.
The temptation to compare Roman festivals to modern holidays is always there, but few Roman festivals match up modern holidays exactly. Modern holidays are usually the affair of a single day, Roman festivals could take up to two weeks. The Saturnalia festival can be tied to many Christmas tradtions, but the Lupercalia is more of a distant cousin to the Valentine's Day celebrations of today.
The Lupercalia was celebrated as a fertility festival. By the time of hte late Republic, the Romans were not sure which god the festival honored, although the celebration remained popular.
The Origins of the Lupercalia
The Lupercalia was started to honor a forgotten fertility god, but the during the Augustan period, the god Lupercus had been invented to explain the festival, according to the Dictionary of Roman Religion. Adkins and Adkins, authors of the book, state that Faunus might have been the god the Lupercalia festival originally honored.
The Lupercalia Festival Itself
The festival was held on February 15th, the day after the modern Valentine's Day Celebration. Celebrants would gather at a cave on the Palatine Hill in Rom, where Romulus and Remus were suckled by their adoptive wolf mother, according to Roman legend.
Priests made sacrifices of goats and dogs as part of the festival, and two young people would have bel touched by the blood of the sacrifice. Participants would then dip wool in the remaining blood, according to the University of Chicago's Penelope's Dictonary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. As part of the Lupercalia celebration, young men would go through the streets whipping people with goat skins to encourage fertility.
How the Lupercalia Became Equated with Valentine's Day
Many of the Pagan festivals of Rome remained popular with the average Roman citizen after the conversation of the empire to Christianity by Constantine in the 4th Century A.D. The Roman Catholic Church could not abolish the Lupercalia festival, so the church set aside February 15th as a day to honor the virgin Mary.
The Lupercalia involved match making of young couples and many marriages were during the festival, if the actual wedding was not performed. What takes place on Valentine's Day today is a far cry from the Ancient Roman Lupercalia festival. Instead of celebrating fertility and the birth of children, people today celebrate romantic love between two people. The Roman God associated with the day has changed to Cupid and modern celebrants avoid all the unnecessary sacrificing of goats and dogs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Lupercalia: A Roman Festival: It Developed Into the Modern Valentine's Day
By the time Augustus came into power, the Romans had forgotten which god this festival honored. Highly practical people, the Romans invented a new god to explain it.
The temptation to compare Roman festivals to modern holidays is always there, but few Roman festivals match up modern holidays exactly. Modern holidays are usually the affair of a single day, Roman festivals could take up to two weeks. The Saturnalia festival can be tied to many Christmas tradtions, but the Lupercalia is more of a distant cousin to the Valentine's Day celebrations of today.
The Lupercalia was celebrated as a fertility festival. By the time of hte late Republic, the Romans were not sure which god the festival honored, although the celebration remained popular.
The Origins of the Lupercalia
The Lupercalia was started to honor a forgotten fertility god, but the during the Augustan period, the god Lupercus had been invented to explain the festival, according to the Dictionary of Roman Religion. Adkins and Adkins, authors of the book, state that Faunus might have been the god the Lupercalia festival originally honored.
The Lupercalia Festival Itself
The festival was held on February 15th, the day after the modern Valentine's Day Celebration. Celebrants would gather at a cave on the Palatine Hill in Rom, where Romulus and Remus were suckled by their adoptive wolf mother, according to Roman legend.
Priests made sacrifices of goats and dogs as part of the festival, and two young people would have bel touched by the blood of the sacrifice. Participants would then dip wool in the remaining blood, according to the University of Chicago's Penelope's Dictonary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. As part of the Lupercalia celebration, young men would go through the streets whipping people with goat skins to encourage fertility.
How the Lupercalia Became Equated with Valentine's Day
Many of the Pagan festivals of Rome remained popular with the average Roman citizen after the conversation of the empire to Christianity by Constantine in the 4th Century A.D. The Roman Catholic Church could not abolish the Lupercalia festival, so the church set aside February 15th as a day to honor the virgin Mary.
The Lupercalia involved match making of young couples and many marriages were during the festival, if the actual wedding was not performed. What takes place on Valentine's Day today is a far cry from the Ancient Roman Lupercalia festival. Instead of celebrating fertility and the birth of children, people today celebrate romantic love between two people. The Roman God associated with the day has changed to Cupid and modern celebrants avoid all the unnecessary sacrificing of goats and dogs.
Comment
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Comment by Tara Robinson on February 4, 2009 at 1:32pm
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Sister Anna what can i say you are always informative in what you bring to this site i thank god for a person like you that give detail and back up history behind many things we need to know. what you write always seems to be ok with me God bless you my sister.
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