Valentine’s Day probably has it’s roots in the pagan Roman festival of Lupercalia (Febuary 15th). Apparently, on this day, a dog and two goats would be sacrificed and the blood smeared onto 2 naked young men who then dressed to goatskin loincloths and ran around the town whipping people with lengths of goats hide. This was supposed to encourage fertility. And lo - there was feasting and celebration.
On the day before Lupercalia, the names of the young men and women were put into a lottery and were drawn in pairs. The man and woman drawn would then take each other as ‘lovers’ for the rest of the festival. I’m not sure if this meant they actually had sex or not but it was all exciting enough anyway for the church to come along and make it boring!
So there you go. Personally I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s day – though I have made my husband a happy Lupercalia card and we’re planning to eat big, juicy steaks and drink a good bottle of wine because we never need much excuse for that. I think we will forgo and ritual sacrifice and goatskin loincloths though. And the sex lottery – I imagine the suspense is lessened if there are only two of you, especially if you draw yourself.
To anyone a bit miserable today, sod it all and go out for a few drinks with your mates. If you want to meet someone, all the single people will be out with friends and if you don’t, you can be cheered by the sight of all the couples getting ripped off in packed restaurants. It may be a lousy day if your single, but the expectations make it fairly irritating if you’re in a relationship too.
Or better still, grab your goatskin whip and go and spread some Lupercalia cheer.
