Valentine is originally Lupercus

It has been said that: “The origin of the name, Lupercalia also known as the Feast of Lupercal, is derived not only from the Roman Fertility God, Lupercus but also from the name given to the cave where Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome were alleged to have been nurtured by a she-wolf. The legend goes that in the 6th century BC the twin’s father, King Amulius ordered that they should be drowned as infants in the river Tiber after their mother broke her vow of celibacy. Having been placed in a basket by a servant that took pity on them, they were carried downriver by the river God and were caught in the branches of a fig tree. They were discovered by a female wolf who raised them in her den at the base of Palantine Hill (where Rome was founded) that would later be named Lupercal.

The festival of Lupercalia was in itself a very violent and sexually charged affair that was carried out in two separate locations, firstly in the cave itself and secondly in the Roman, open-air, public meeting place called the Comitium.

At the Lupercal cave, a dog and one or more male goats, to represent sexuality were sacrificed by the Luperci, a group of priests. Two of them, at this point naked, would be smeared by the blood from the sacrificial knife. As the Luperci priests laughed, the blood was removed with wool soaked in milk. Strips of the freshly sacrificed goats were then cut to form what are referred to as thongs or februa. These were to be used later in the celebration and it’s likely to be where the name for our month of February found its origins.

The festivities were then transferred to the city of Ancient Rome. Naked or near-naked, the Luperci ran around using the februa to whip all women who were in striking distance. This was a fertility rite, welcomed by many of the ladies present who often bared their skin to be lashed. Location was often important, for example, a lashed breast may lead to lactation. As time progressed, this tradition became more chaste as nudity fell out of favour and women were whipped on their hands by fully clothed men.

Next, women’s names were randomly drawn from jars by the men to decide who would couple with whom for the duration of the feasting and subsequent revelry. Many couples would choose to stay together until the following year’s celebration. Quite a number of them would fall in love and often got married.

It is not coincidental that the Christian festival of St Valentine’s day should also fall on the 14th February which is right in the middle of Lupercalia. As is evident in other examples of pagan festivals that were co-opted by Christianity (Yule/Saturnalia becoming Christmas, Samhain becoming Halloween/All Hallows Eve and Eostre/Ostara becoming Easter), it appeared to be easier to the early Christians to simply assimilate the local customs and develop a more sanitised, chaste way to celebrate them as a way to gently control the populace.

In the 5th century AD, Pope Gelasius I decided to outlaw the practice of Lupercalia and mandated that that 14th February would instead be to mark the martyrdom of St Valentine instead. Many legends circulate regarding Valentine himself.”