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Lupercalia (redirected from Feast of Lupercalia)

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Lupercalia (looparkalyo),ancient Roman festival

held annualy on Feb. 15. The ceremony ofthe festival was
intended to secure fertility and keep out evil. Two male
youths, clad in animal skin, ran around the city slapping
passersby with strips of goat skin. Because the youths
impersonated male goats (the embodiment of sexuality).
the ceremony was believed to be in honor of Faunus. The
festival survived into Christian times and was not abolished
until the end of the 5th cent.

"CITE" c a The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia" Copyright

2013, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University
Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/
Lupercalia
Type of Holiday: Ancient
Date of Observation: February 15
Where Celebrated: Rome
Symbols and Customs: Blood, Februa, Goat, Milk, Wolf
Colors: Red and white, in the form of BLOOD and MILK,
both played a part in the earliest observance of the
Lupercalia. Nowadays these are the colors associated
with Valentine's Day, to which this ancient festival has
been linked.
Related Holidays: Valentine's Day

ORIGINS

The Lupercalia was a festival in the ancient Roman

religion, which scholars trace back to the sixth century B
C.E. Roman religion dominated Rome and influenced
territories in its empire until Emperor Constantine's
conversion to Christianity in the third century C. E
Ancient Roman religion was heavily influenced by the
older Greek religion. Roman festivals therefore had
much in common with those of the ancient Greeks. Not
only were their gods and goddesses mostly the same as
those in the Greek pantheon (though the Romans
renamed them), but their religious festivals were
observed with similar activities: ritual sacrifice, theatrical
performances, games, and feasts.
The Lupercalia festival was held in honor of the WOLF
who mothered Romulus and Remus, the legendary twin
founders of Rome. During the original Roman
celebration, members from two colleges of priests
gathered at a cave on the Palatine Hill called the
Lupercal-supposedly the cave where Romulus and
Remus had been suckled by a she-wolf-and sacrificed a
GOAT and a dog. The animals' BLOOD was smeared on
the foreheads of two young priests and then wiped away
with wool dipped in MILK. Thetwo young men stripped
down to a goatskin loincloth and ran around the Palatine,
striking everyone who approached them, especially the
women, with thongs of goat skin called FEBRUA. It is
believed that this was both a fertility ritual and a
purification rite. It may also have been a very early
example of "beating the bounds" (see ASCENSION DAY),
or reestablishing the borders of the early Palatine
settlement.
There is some confusion over which god the Luperci or
priests served; some say it was Faunus, a rural deity, and
some say it was Pan, the god of shepherds who
protected sheep from the danger of wolves. All that is
certain is that by Caesars time, the annual ceremony
had become a spectacular public sight, with young men
running half-naked through the streets and provoking
much good-natured hysteria among the women.
February 15 was also the day when Mark Antony offered
Julius Caesar the crown. Thanks to this historic event,
and Shakespeare's account of it in his play Julius Caesar,
the Lupercalia is one of the best known of all Roman
festivals.

It is interesting that such a rustic festival continued to be

celebrated in Rome for centuries after it had been
Christianized. Its survival can be partially credited to
Augustus, who rebuilt the Lupercal in the first century B.
C.E., thus giving the celebration a boost. It continued to
beobserved until 494c.E., when Pope Gelasius
changed the day to the Feast of the Purification of the
Virgin Mary (see CANDLEMAS ). There is some reason
to believe that the Lupercalia was a forerunner of the
modern VALENTINE'S DAY: Part of the ceremony
involved putting girls' names in a box and letting boys
draw them out, thus pairing them off until the next
Lupercalia.
SYMBOLS AND CUSTOMS

Blood

Blood played an important role in the observation of the

Lupercalia. The blood of the animals sacrificed at the
festival was smeared across the foreheads of two young
priests witha knife-perhaps to symbolize death without
actually killing anyone. Some accounts of the early
observation of this festival say that the youths had to
laugh afterthe blood had been wiped off (see MILK),
which may have been another symbolic act designed to
prove that they had been reborn or revived.

Red, the color of blood, is still closely identified with the

celebration of VALENTINES DAY on February 14. There
is reason to believe that what started out pagan
as a

fertility ritual was eventually transformed into a Christian

feast in honor of St. Valentine. Then the Christian
estival gradually turned into a secular celebration of
young lovers. If this is the case, then the red that
dominates so many modern Valentine cards may have
derived from the sacrificial blood of the Lupercalia.
Februa

The skins of the goats sacrificed at the Lupercalia were

cut into long, thin strips, from which whips were made.
The loinskin-clad youths ran through the streets,
whipping everyone they met. Women in particular were
eager to receive these lashes, as they believed that the
whipping would cure infertility and ease the pains of
childbirth.

The goatskin thongs used as whips were called februa.

Both this name and the name of the month in which the
festival was observed, February, were derived from the
word februum, which was an ancient instrument of
purification. Whipping certain parts of the body with an
instrument believed to possess magical powers was
considered an effective way of driving off the evil spirits
that interfered with human fertilization. The goatskin
thongs were believed to possess such powers.

Running around the settlement on the Palatine Hill in

Rome wearing the skins and carrying the februa appears
to have been an attempt to trace a magic circle around
the city to shut out evil influences. This would make the
Lupercalia a precursor of the ceremony that came to be
known as "beating the bounds"
Goat

In pre-Christian times, the goat was a symbol of virility

and unbridled lust. Christians saw the goat as an
"impure, stinking" creature in search of gratification. In
portrayals of the Last Judgment, the goat is the creature
who is eternally condemned to the fires of Hell, and it's
no coincidence that the devil has many goatlike
characteristics. In the Middle Ages, witches were often
shown riding through the air on goats, and the devil
appears as a male goat whose rump the witches kiss.

If the Lupercalia was primarily a fertility ritual, it makes

sense that the women were whipped with thongs made
from the skins of an animal identified with lust and
virility. But why was a dog sacrificed as well? It is
important to remember here that the Lupercalia was
both a fertility rite and a purification rite, held to protect
the fields and herds from evil. Perhaps dogs were
involved in the sacrifice because they are the traditional
guardians of the sheepfold.

Goats today are considered a symbol of sexual drive,

and February is the month during which they mate.
Milk

After the Luperci were smeared with the blood of the

sacrifice, the blood was wiped from their foreheads with
wool dipped in milk. Just as the blood symbolized death,
the milky wool was symbolic of new life, because milk
represents the source of life. Some scholars have
theorized that the milk was a symbol of sperm and the
red symbolized menstrual blood. According to an
ancient theory of procreation, new life came from the
union of white sperm with red menses.

Today, red and white are the colors associated with

VALENTINE'S DAY.

Wolf

The Latin word for wolf is lupus, from which both the
Lupercal (cave) and the Lupercalia derived their names.
While the festival may originally have been held in honor
of the she-wolf who cared for Romulus and Remus,
wolves also represented a threat to the herds on which
the early Romans depended for food. The wolf is
therefore a symbol not only for the wild, unrestrained
forces of nature but also for the benevolent guardian of
helpless creatures like Romulus and Remus.
Why were the priests called Luperci? The word Lupercus
might have comefroma phrase meaning "to purify by
means of a goat"; or it might have come froma
combination of lupus and arcere, meaning "he who
wards off wolves." Whether the Luperci were protectors
from wolves or wolf-priests who took the form of wolves
as a means of bringing them under control is a question
that has never been satisfactorily answered. Some
scholars suggest that the dead revealed themselves in
the form of wolves, against whom the community had to
be defended.

FURTHER READING

Biedermann, Hans. Dictionary of Symbolism: Cultural

Icons and the Meanings Behind Them. New York
Meridian Books, 1994. Fowler, W. Warde. The Roman
Festivals of the Period of the Republic. New York:
Macmillan Co., 1925. Henderson, Helene, ed. Holidays,
Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary. 3rd
ed. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 2005. James, E.0. Seasonal
Feasts and Festivals. 1961. Reprint. Detroit:
Omnigraphics, 1993. Lemprière, John. Lemprières
Classical Dictionary. Revised ed. London: Bracken, 1994.
Santino, Jack. All Around the Year: Holidays and
Celebrations in American Life. Urbana: University of
linois Press, 1994. Scullard, H.H. Festivals and
Ceremonies of the Roman Republic. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1981
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 AThe following article is from The Great Soviet
Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or
ideologically biased.

Lupercalia
in ancient Rome, celebrations in honor of Lupercus, one of
the names of the god Faunus, the protector of the herds.
During the celebration, Lupercal priests dressed in the skins
of sacrificed goats ran around the boundaries of the
Palatine Hill striking passersby, especially women, with
leather thongs. The festival of Lupercalia was linked to the
ancient fertility rites and was celebrated annually on
February 15 until late antiquity.

"CITE" c The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979)

2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Lupercalia
February 15
This was an ancient Roman festival during which
worshippers gathered at a grotto on the Palatine Hill in
Rome called the Lupercal, where Rome's legendary
founders, Romulus and Remus, had been suckled by a wolf.
The sacrifice of goats and dogs to the Roman deities
Lupercus and Faunus was part of the ceremony. Luperci
(priests of Lupercus) dressed in goatskins and, smeared
with the sacrificial blood, would run about striking womern
with thongs of goat skin. This was thought to assure them
of fertility and an easy delivery. The name for these thongs
februa-meant "means of purification" and eventually
gave the month of February its name. There is some reason
to believe that the Lupercalia was a forerunner of modern
VALENTINE'S DAY Customs. Part of the ceremony involved
putting girls' names in a box and letting boys draw them out,
thus pairing them off until the next Lupercalia.
sOURCES:
AmerBkDays-2000, p. 106
BkHo/lWrld-1986, Feb 14
DaysCustFaith-1957, p. 54
DictDays-1988, p. 70
DictRomRe-1996, p. 136
FestRom-1981, p. 76
FestSaintDays-1915, p. 34
OxYear1999, p. 80
I T C " ea lalidao Paatin' = l a t i a n s at h Alnel