The Pagan Origins of Valentine's Day
& a Valentine's gift!
Hi friends!
I’ve just set up another little gift for those of you on a free subscription. In honour of fertility day (AKA Valentine’s Day!), here is 20% off my entire archive - now 80+ articles each with an audio recording along with all my new entries for 1 YEAR!!
I made this discount available in December and was told by many of you on the free subscription how helpful it was to be able to upgrade it. So here it is again!
My Substack is the main archive of my work and all my new writings. On a paid subscription, as well as receiving the free monthly newsletter, you will also get access to all my weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) posts sent directly to your inbox.
The discount will be available for the 3 days of Lupercalia, 13-15 February.
Please do share it with anyone you think might enjoy this archive and value a little discount! And read on for the juicy/now taboo origins of V Day!
Did you know Valentine’s Day is a 2,700 year old tradition!? During the Roman era, it was an ancient fertility rite that originally took place from approximately the 13-15 February.
On February 13th, teenage boys would pick the names of girls from a vessel (this is where we get the exchanging of Valentine’s from).
On the 14th they would pair off and their union was seen as ensuring fertility for the coming year.
Animals were sacrificed and their hides were made into wips. Women would gather along a processional way, and male initiates would whip them with the animal hides.
Whipping on certain body parts would ensure the health of that area - so if a woman needed help lactating, she would bare her breasts.
Early Roman Christians altered the practice after the late Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the state religion, replacing the girls’ names in the vessel with those of martyred Christian saints — one of which was St Valentinus.
February 14th was originally the day of Juno, the once Mother-Goddess. The day was known as Juno Februata (Juno the Chaste) and invoked the Goddess along with Lupa the she-wolf and the pastoral god Faunus.
In a nutshell, Valentine’s Day is the conversion of a pagan festival into a Christian tradition turned consumerist.
So, wishing you some of that unsanitised corporeal goodness this Fertility Day!
With all my Love,
xx Gabriela
Replacing health, fertility and joviality with guilt. It’s probably about time we started flipping the order of things back again. Lovely article, thank you!
Hmmm…being whipped by men with animal hides and coerced into having sex with a teenage boy who pulled my name out of a hat? Struggling to see how that would be a good time? Good time for who?