Pagan origins of Valentine’s Day

By Nancy Venus

Valentine’s Day, filled with flowers, love, chocolates and Cupid, was actually the ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia.  Lupercalia was celebrated on February 15^th not 14^th.  The date was moved and the name changed to St. Valentine’s Day.  This was done around 496 AD and named after a martyred Catholic saint on the orders of by Pope Gelasius I.  This was because Lupercalia was considered very pagan and very obscene by the church.  They changed the day to the 14^th and the meaning of the festival itself.

Lupercalia, February 15^th also known as Februatio, was a purification and fertility festival in which men and young boys ran naked, or dressed in nothing but goat’s skins through the streets of Rome.  They would slap every woman they encountered with goat skin tongs.  To run with the Luperci (priests of Lupercus) was considered an honor.  This was done to bring about the blessings of purification, good health, fertility and protection from hungry wolves.  Why goat skins you might ask?  The goat was considered to be the symbol of male fertility.  This festival is in honor of not just Lupercus, but also Faunus the Goat man God who has much in common with the Greek Pan.  Lupercalia was also associated with other Gods as well such as Juno, Bacchus etc.   The women who participated would take off their clothes, so they could get a better blessing when slapped.  Most people who celebrated this festival were naked in all their natural pagan glory.  This was the great purification festival of the year’s end.  March, the month of Mars, was the first month of the New Year.  During Lupercalia the walls were considered to be thin between the worlds, and contacting spirits a very likely happening. 

As a pagan myself, I am very happy that at least Cupid, (Venus’s son) has managed to escape the Christian censors of our religion.  So there are still some things about this time of year that are very pagan.   

Cupid And Psyche