Lupercalia and Lent

Valentine's Day is fast upon us, before long before the mythical Saint Valentine delivered notes to forbidden lovers, February 13 and 14th were celebrated in a very different manner. Yes those adorable stuffed wolves with sparkling pink hearts may not have much meaning for some, but for lovers of the Old Ways it has a very deep meaning indeed. Valentine's Day was not always about fluff, nougat, and naughty undies, although I'm sure at some point those things probably did come into play. Once upon a time it was celebrated as a rite of cleansing, flagellation, and purity. Yes I said flagellation. Certainly makes you look at the tiny toy cat'o'nine tails a bit differently doesn't it?

Before the contest to see who could snag the biggest, tackiest stuffed wolf on the market, real wolves were celebrated in the forests and glens of ancient Greece and Rome. Although Lupercalia is mainly a Greco-Roman holiday, other cultures celebrated the wolf also. Of all of the Pagan festivals, at least in Rome, Lupercalia is the record holder for the longest running. Dating from before the founding of ancient Rome until around 753 B.C.E, Lupercalia began the celebration of the Ides of March, occurring roughly a full month before the official festival of Mars began. The reason the timing is so important is the twin boys Romulus and Remus, were the twin sons of the god Mars. As with many of the festivals of the gods in Roman culture, one very often led into the next. According to legend, Rhea grew afraid for the safety of her sons, so to protect them she placed them in a basket and set them adrift on the river knowing someone would find them and take care of them.

Someone did, a she-wolf named Lupa. Lupa cared for the twin boys as if they were her own, nursing them and raising them until a shepherd and his wife found the boys and raised them as their own. When the boys reached adulthood, they decided not to follow in their foster-father's footsteps but instead they chose to become kings in their own right and build kingdoms of their own. They decided to build on the shores of the River Tiber, however both wanted to be king. In a fit of rage, Romulus struck his brother in the head with a rock and killed him, thus going on to build one of the greatest cities the world has ever seen. Thus the founding of Rome.

Remember I said this was also a Greek holiday and the Greeks and Romans were notorious for sharing gods, holidays, and giving them different names and slightly adjusting their roles and traditions as their society demanded. Arcadia is said to be the home of the Greek god Pan. Pan was also very well loved among the Romans also. Not only because he protected their herds and insured fertility with livestock and such, he also was a bit of a randy god. Pan was a great wild lover of music, maids, and merriment and all wild things were his companions. This festival in particular honored an aspect of Pan known as the Lycaean Pan. You may recognize this as the root for the very popular term Lycan or Lycanthrope. While the root word of Lycan refers to wolves, Lycanthropy is a very rare mental illness in which a person believes they will physically become a wolf. It is not necessarily akin to the shapeshifting variety here.

Pan was very well loved particularly among a portion of mountain dwelling Greeks who were said to be able to transform from human to wolves at will. They were so disliked hunters would scourge the statues and grottoes of the god whenever they came near it. Pan's places of worship weren't fancy temples, although a large one still stands, and in the mountains random locations throughout the woods would have his likenesses. The king of this portion of Greece, was named Lycoan who created the cult of Zeus. Legend has it that Zeus opted to pay the wild city a visit disguised as a peasant. Lycoan, unable to recognize the god, served him the entrails of the child of one of his 50 sons roasted with the meat of a goat. For this the god killed most of his sons with a single bolt of lightening and Lycoan was transformed into a wolf, as were any surviving sons. There are a few other legends along the same vein, but they generally revolve around gross disrespect of the god of which Lycoan claimed to honor.

Now here is where things begin to get naughty.

Lupa is also a slang term for prostitute in ancient Rome. It's said there was a very wealthy prostitute in Rome named Acca Larentia, whom her patrons referred to as "she-wolf". I suppose that could have all sorts of wicked connotations, but the nickname of Lupa stuck. In fact, she was so well loved the festival of Larentalia (December 23rd) was established in her honor. Her worship may go back even further as she is also connected with Lares, a set of home guardians or gods that watches over the deceased. She was also known among the Sabines as Larunda. IN some legend she is connected to a triplicity of prophetic goddesses known as the Camanae; Muta (silence), Tacita (the secret) and Lara (protection). In this reference we see Lupa as more than a mere wolf, she is the mother of Rome, a triple goddess that reigns over fertility (as courtesan), harvests (as Lupa protecting the flocks of shepherds), and as the underworld goddess and protectress of the dead and of prophesy.

Other festivities to celebrate courtesans continued well into the 1600s in Rome and Venice as the Floralia, or the Festival of Flowers, a very polite term for courtesans and the Roman goddess of Spring, Flora. So Lupercalia is just the middle festival between Saturnalia in December, Larentalia, and Floralia.

The actual ceremonies of Lupercalia were performed by the Luperci and were done in pairs. These ceremonies were presided over by two groups, or gentes, the Fabii (on behalf of Remus) and the Quinctillii (on behalf of Romulus). Two of the more famous leaders of each branch are Marc Anthony and Julius Caesar, who founded the Jullii. The ceremony was broken down into two locations. The first was the actual spot where Lupa first found the twins and nursed them back to health. The Lupercal, or the celebration of the wolf, opens with a sacrifice of a dog and a goat. The blood from said sacrifice was then smeared on the foreheads of young men. They would then dress themselves in goat skin from the sacrificed animal and dance around the Palatine, or the path leading from the first point of ceremony to the next point of ceremony where the feasting and debauchery would begin.

On the way to the feasting, strips of goat skin would be used for flagellation, and anyone slow enough to not run ahead of these blood smeared young men would get a hardy smack with the strips of hyde. Normally those running ahead of these men were young women. At some point, a frenzy would develop through this ecstatic worship and these women would bare their backs for flagellation with the skins. It was thought that if the goat skin penetrated the skin, the fertility of the women was guaranteed. Once at the actual feast, participants worked into a frenzy would devour the food like wild animals, thus celebrating their inner wolf. This is likely where the term, whipping into a frenzy, derived.

By the early years of the Christian Church, the ceremony had greatly calmed down. Lupercalia had completely lost its ecstatic flavor and in place was a rather banal blend of fully clothed penitence rituals rather than rites to honor fertility. In place of nubile naked men and women, a solemn rite of sacrifice was instilled. In place of the animal sacrifice to insure fertility and honor the old gods, the new god required a flagellation of hands and in some cases self flagellation in accordance to their confessed sins.

The Spring festivals themselves continued throughout the Rennaisance and even into today all over the world, but especially so in Europe. The actual festival is kicked off a day or two prior to Lupercalia, however the meaning is the same. In Anglo-Saxon the word for Spring festivals is Lenctene, which means flowering. During these festivals, which begin roughly around February 01/02 (Oimelc, Imbolc, Imbolg, Candlemas) and continue throughout the fertile season, cakes are created and eaten, rites of cleansing are observed (Spring cleaning, smudging), gardens are planned and many are started at this time. Cleansing is not merely a physical thing. It is also a spiritual thing as well. These rites of cleansing held during Lupercalia, because the scourging and whipping were also considered a way to remove or shake free any negative energy that prevented fertility or reservations of ecstatic worship, were considered a wild form of purification that translated into the whipping of hands in the early years of the Christian Church. This period has taken another face as well as Lent, or the celebration of flowering and sacrifice. Although the Christian celebration marks the 40 days of sacrifice by Jesus during his stay in the forest and his period of temptation with Satan, a point of sacrifice is expected in which the observer offers to give up something dear to them (a hobby, food, or habit) in order to build character and become more Christlike in the process. In other words, to resist temptation which becomes all the greater when an every day object has forbidden connotations. Carnival is the modern equivalent of Lupercalia.

Modern celebrants aren't so different. While most of us wouldn't object to being the floggers, most wouldn't hop to be the floggees. However, very few of us can object to the desire to cleanse and purify ourselves and our space, whether it is to get into a bikini by Summer or whether it is to improve our lives. Although the details are a bit more subtle, the dance of ecstasy as warmer weather creeps into Savannah nights can be felt by everyone here. Get outside, dance in the rain, have a bbq, and howl at the moon.