IO LUPERCALIA, OJCL!
Ana ohnersorgen, NJCL HISTORIAN
For many, the mention
of Valentine’s Day brin
gs to mind the pictures
Hallmark holiday of he
que
arts, flowers, and choc
olate... but to me, a La
archaeologists for pa
tin nerd with
rents, I am reminded of
the history behind Valen
most modern holidays,
tine’s Day. Like
Valentine’s Day has its
ro
ot
s
in
pa
gan rituals. Luckily en
for us JCLers, Valentin
ough
e’s Day is the modern
sp
in
of
f
of a Roman holiday: Lu
Lupercalia was a heal
percalia.
th and fertility celebra
tion occurring on the
This highly anticipated
15th of February.
day was one of both so
lemn rituals and drunke
n debauchery.
rcal Cave in
Lupercalia began inside the Lupe
That’s because
the Palatine Hill. Sound familiar?
rcal Cave is
according to Roman myth the Lupe
and Remus. In
where the she-wolf nursed Romulus
tricide between the
order to forgive the eventual fra
priests met inside
founding brothers, two groups of
e group, the
the cave to kick off Lupercalia. On
endants of
Quintilii, were said to be the desc
Fabii, were said
Romulus, and the other group, the
These priests
to be the descendants of Remus.
le goats and dogs.
partook in the sacrifice of multip
Statue depicting
Romulus, Remus,
and the she-wolf
Then, they brought in two young
men, one to represent
Romulus and the other to repres
ent Remus. The priests
smeared the blood from the sacri
fices across the foreheads
of the youths then immediately wip
ed them clean with goats
milk. This essentially symbolized
the violence of Rome’s past
being replaced by the idyllic agra
rian lifestyle.
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