Pity Party
Rudi Whitmore
Issue date: 2/13/07 Section: Entertainment
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In the spirit of the season (hearts, chocolate and small stuffed creatures dyed from an ungodly cotton candied spectrum, and possibly, if you're lucky, diamonds) I decided to take a peek at Valentine's Day. A bit of an in-depth look, if you will, at what has bravely led us into this $13.7 billion-per-year business. That's right, kiddies, one day on the ass-end of winter is worth $13.7 billion.
According to the Society of American Florists, over 180 million roses were purchased for Valentine's Day in 2005. And we're the sucker demographic. The International Mass Retail Association performed their annual V-day survey, and the 18-24 demographic plans to be spending upwards of $183.80 per person.
It's all in the grand and ancient tradition of courtly, ostentatious shows of affection, right?
Probably not. Like many modern celebrations, Valentine's Day was based on an old pagan ritual, deeply rooted in Roman culture.
Before it became a bastardized, Catholicized, watered down version of itself, Lupercalia was a purely Roman venture. Mythology holds that the twin brothers who founded Rome, Remus and Rolumus, were abandoned and found by a she-wolf who suckled them to health until a farmer adopted them.
Lupercalia is the celebration of the wolf that cared for the founders of the Eternal City.
Those Romans knew how to celebrate, all things considered. On Lupercalia, they would sacrifice a goat and a dog, and anoint young temple workers foreheads with the blood and milk. Then, after tearing strips of hide off the sacrificed animals, the priests from the temple and citizens would run though the city. They would hit the women and the crops with the bloodied hide, as a fertility blessing. Sexy, right? There was one kind of sexy thing. They used to put the single women's names into an urn, and bachelors would draw names. The couples would live together for a year, and sometimes this resulted in marriage.
Lupercalia was abolished in the 5th century, when the Catholic church took over (they did that a lot back then). Pope Gelasius I was like, "Yo. No paganism." When the Church intervened in pagan festivals in ancient times, they often replaced them with their own festivals, because if the populace could still celebrate at the times they were used to, they didn't take it so hard. The Church also abolished the ancient form of match.com.
According to the Society of American Florists, over 180 million roses were purchased for Valentine's Day in 2005. And we're the sucker demographic. The International Mass Retail Association performed their annual V-day survey, and the 18-24 demographic plans to be spending upwards of $183.80 per person.
It's all in the grand and ancient tradition of courtly, ostentatious shows of affection, right?
Probably not. Like many modern celebrations, Valentine's Day was based on an old pagan ritual, deeply rooted in Roman culture.
Before it became a bastardized, Catholicized, watered down version of itself, Lupercalia was a purely Roman venture. Mythology holds that the twin brothers who founded Rome, Remus and Rolumus, were abandoned and found by a she-wolf who suckled them to health until a farmer adopted them.
Lupercalia is the celebration of the wolf that cared for the founders of the Eternal City.
Those Romans knew how to celebrate, all things considered. On Lupercalia, they would sacrifice a goat and a dog, and anoint young temple workers foreheads with the blood and milk. Then, after tearing strips of hide off the sacrificed animals, the priests from the temple and citizens would run though the city. They would hit the women and the crops with the bloodied hide, as a fertility blessing. Sexy, right? There was one kind of sexy thing. They used to put the single women's names into an urn, and bachelors would draw names. The couples would live together for a year, and sometimes this resulted in marriage.
Lupercalia was abolished in the 5th century, when the Catholic church took over (they did that a lot back then). Pope Gelasius I was like, "Yo. No paganism." When the Church intervened in pagan festivals in ancient times, they often replaced them with their own festivals, because if the populace could still celebrate at the times they were used to, they didn't take it so hard. The Church also abolished the ancient form of match.com.
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