Happy Valentine’s Day to all! Being the Pagan that I am, I can’t help but point out that this custom of Valentine’s Day is another holiday which was stolen from the ancient Pagans who celebrated Lupricalia. Lupricalia is the festival for the Roman Goddess Lupa, who takes the form of a wolf and whose name means ‘bitch’. According to the mythology, Lupa nursed two twins,
Romulus and Remus, the sons of the God of war, Mars, by a mortal woman.
Lupa’s festival lasted a couple of weeks and was a great celebration of love and sex, with lots of dancing – especially with sausages. This upset the ancient Christians and they banned the celebrations.
Originally there were three main spring celebrations involving sex, especially out of doors: Imbolc, the beginning of early spring, Lupricalia and May’s Eve, known nowadays as ‘May Day’. The idea of having wild sexual celebrations, especially those which lasted throughout the night, was to promote the growth of the crops for the year; encouraging productivity by wild example.
The ancient Pagans weren’t concerned about the ‘morals’ of the Christians. Sex was and still is considered ‘holy’, as was and still is the human body. So having wild sex in the field all night was a joyous celebration.
The ancient Catholic Church with Pope Gelasius at the helm replaced Lupricalia back in 496 CE with Valentine’s Day, in honour of a priest who believed in love. Valentine was known for secretly marrying couples when the Roman Emperor Claudius (back in 270 CE) had banned marriage because he believed married men wouldn’t be willing to go into battle, leaving their families behind. Valentine was clubbed, stoned and beheaded on Feb 24, 270. Before he died, he supposedly fell in love with the blind daughter of his capturer. He signed a love note to her: ‘from your Valentine’, a phrase that has stuck ever since.
The Church no longer celebrates Valentine’s day but the customs live on. So do the celebrations of Lupricalia among modern Pagans, in spite of the fact that the Church tried hard to quash it many years ago. So however you celebrate it, I hope you do. Happy early spring to all!
I Love hearing about where all these things stemed from.
I thought Valentines was just another Halmark holiday.
Thanx for the history!!
Well it’s just another Hallmark holiday as far as mainstream conciousness is concerned. But there are a few thousand Pagans in North America who know the truth, and now, so do you! Thanks for your comment, Kelly!