Go to your local farm or farmers market and get some fresh milk. Some Christian choose not to celebrate Valentine’s Day because it is based off of the pagan festival of Lupercalia. 5. By then, men who raced were linked to the Roman cavalry and wore only goatskin loincloths. It appears like that in Italy, the victorious sun goddess and the lunar wolf goddess of the underworld were linked by a “fiery” lake of new beginnings. Lupercalia is in the month of February, and it was also called dies Februatus by the ancient Romans. History.com claims Lupercalia was a pagan touchstone for the beginnings of Valentine’s Day, stating: While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of [Saint] Valentine’s death or burial–which probably occurred around A.D. 270–others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Lupercalia was one ritual intertwined with other corresponding Roman rituals  that signaled the ending and beginning of their calendar year. The holiday got the name St. Valentine’s Day because people named Valentine had a strange habit of dying on February 14. (Getting whipped was supposed to make your fertile, so the more whippings, the more fertile. This is SO heavy metal. While it did honor the founding myth of Rome (see below), Lupercalia is also linked to the Ides of March and the Fordicīdia on April 15. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Sometimes, they would stay together until the next year’s festival, or even get married. To learn more about the Otherworldly Oracle’s website Privacy Policy, visit our Privacy Policy page here. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Although in theory, Valentine’s Day may harken very far back to seasonal practices by ancient peoples who both celebrated the protection of the underworld lunar goddess who nurtured the underworld (winter) sun as well as the return of the stronger victorious spring and summer sun goddess, that’s unlikely. Lupercalia is a powerful day to do fertility spells and rituals of any kind! When in Rome, do as the Romans do. February 14 fell smack dab in the middle of the Lupercalia festival that typically happened somewhere between February 13-15. The river-god is said to have carried the basket down river where it got caught in the branches of a wild fig tree. Saint Valentine was said to be a priest named Valentine who was imprisoned and beheaded by Roman. ‘he-goat) and the women were ordered to “no longer run away” (Wiseman 14). Enter your email to subscribe to receive notifications of new blog posts and other topics of interest by email! Unfortunately, this description of the ancient Lupercalia is generally very inaccurate. The name is linked to the wolf (lupus) and therefore the priesthood, the Luperci, were the Brotherhood of the Wolf. ¹. Either way, fertility isn’t just about conceiving children. It is said to have been a Shepard’s festival that was brought to Rome by Romulus and Remus.