Post Valentine's Comment About the Pagan Ritual!

Here's a little wolf loving, puppy and parent style!

Robin posted about Lupercalia, the early pagan ritual that had to do with Valentine's, but she didn't mention that it had to do with wolves. So being the wolfish person I am, I just had to add a post concerning this festival!!! You know, to add the wolf's point of view.

As she mentioned, it was a pagan ritual of feasting to do with fertility during the time of the Romans, 3rd or 4th BC.

Now, according to some scholars, what you might not know was that the god that watched over the proceedings was Lupercus, which was derived from the Latin word lupus, meaning wolf. It was believed that the god watched over shepherds and their flocks, and in honor of this, they celebrated a feast called Lupercalia.

On the first day, the fertility festival was in progress. The second day was dedicated to Juno-lupa, the She Wolf. Remember the she-wolf that had nursed Romulus and Remus, the twins who founded Rome?

So there you have it. Valentine's Day, some scholars' views of the Roman's wolf version of the celebration of Valentines! :)

It's interesting to note that though the idea was to sacrifice goats during the festivities to the god so he would watch over their flocks and the shepherds, they also honored the she-wolf who nursed the founders of Rome.

I loved all your research too, Robin. I had planned to post this earlier, but forgot until I saw your post. *sigh*

But there you have it! The Roman's wolf version of Valentine's!

And here's a little loving, adult style. :)

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's! I wrote about love, Taming the Highland Wolf style! :)

You know, all great legends were made up by storytellers, so if you had to come up with a myth or legend to explain something that existed in the world--like why foxes have bushy tails and bobcats have none, what would it be?

I'm here today where Sourcebooks is giving away 2 free books.
http://annavivian.blogspot.com/2010/02/guest-blog-giveaway-with-terry-spear.html

And here:
http://www.scifiguy.ca/2010/02/guest-author-terry-spear-interview.html

http://www.scifiguy.ca/2010/02/review-legend-of-white-wolf-by-terry.html

http://seductivemusings.blogspot.com/?zx=e5d843283a51b81e

And all week I'll be at other locations, links posted the day of the event at my regular blog:

http://terry-spear.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-wolves.html

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male, even on Valentine's Day!"
www.terryspear.com