Lupercalia, Valentine origin!

Lupercalia was a pegan holiday in which women were beaten to improve fertility. later, the pope changed the day to stop the festival and gave the festival a new name Valentine day, to honor the two martyrs by that name.

[kavikv.d.hexenholtz]

With respect to the Lupercalia-Valentine’s connection, most scholars would argue that there is absolutely no connection between two whatsoever.

The earliest attested historical record of the Lupercalia comes from the 3rd century BCE, while the last record was from the end of the 5th century CE — around the same time Pope Gelasius I made February 14 into a day that would honor the Christian martyr, Saint Valentine.

At no point however does Gelasius speak of compromise, or of adapting any pagan customs. Even though they weren’t far apart chronologically, the supposed symbolic overlap between the two took centuries more to develop, as Valentine’s Day hadn’t yet acquired the romantic meaning it has today. In the early church, this would have been a solemn celebration; not the holiday it is today. Indeed, it is quite possible that Gelasius was partly responsible for Lupercalia’s decline.

There just isn’t any historical evidence to suggest that one was replaced by another.

Valentine’s Day and romance became associated with each other only in the late 14th century with a few well-known poems of Geoffrey Chaucer (of Canterbury Tales fame). That’s a pretty huge gap between the late 1300’s and the end of Lupercalia in the 400’s. A thousand year gap where nothing resembling Lupercalia or romance and Valentine’s Day is historically attested or recorded.

It would seem, under closer examination, that a supposed connection between Valentine’s Day and the Roman Lupercalia lies solely within the realm of some very wishful thinking.