Feb. 14: A day where slaughtering goats and nakedly running rampant through the streets with the animals’ bloody skins never felt so right.

At least that’s how it used to be.

No joke. Back in ancient Rome, the pagan festival of Lupercalia, which ran annually from Feb. 13 to Feb. 15, hosted these wild actions. Men would sacrifice goats, skin them and then dip the goats’ hides in their own blood. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, the men would get drunk and run through the streets of Rome, whipping individuals as they passed by.

A whip from a bloody goat hide from a drunken naked man? No, thank you — at least not in 2017. But when this all went down centuries ago, it was actually desirable to be hit by the goat hide.

“If you were hit by a goat hide, then that meant that you would be fertile the next year,” said Jesse Hysell, a doctoral candidate in history in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. “So women — especially eligible, young women — would line up in the city of Rome.”

Hysell, whose expertise is medieval and modern Mediterranean and Renaissance Italy, said Lupercalia seemed to be based around the veneration of the pagan god Pan, who was associated with sex and drinking.

The element of St. Valentine didn’t enter the fold until somewhere around the year 490, when Pope Gelasius I instituted Valentine’s Day to replace the Lupercalia with a Christian celebration. It was no coincidence Gelasius’ choice fell at the height of the pagan festival.

The truth behind St. Valentine’s existence is debated by some historians. Real or not, the stories told about him certainly fall within the theme of love that resonates with the current definition of Valentine’s Day.

Valentine was a priest during a time when Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire, secretly marrying Christian couples. Other legends claim Valentine would visit dungeon-bound Christians who were to be executed for their faith.

“He would smuggle in love letters to the jail from his parishioners, you know, from his flock,” Hysell said. “So if a Christian woman was in jail and going to be executed, then her boyfriend would write her a love letter and Valentine would take it and visit her.”

Now, thousands of years later, we still send cards in Valentine’s name. The holiday has become commercialized, but the theme hasn’t changed.

It’s all about love — even if you’re a goat.

Published on February 13, 2017 at 8:21 pm

Contact: jtbloss@syr.edu | @jtbloss