Lupercalia and Valentine's Day

Belated Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Lupercalia today! Lupercalia is the equivalent of Valentine's Day in Classical times. Celebrated on February 15 during the ancient Roman days, as far back as the 6th century BC, the feast of Lupercalia marked the arrival of spring. The celebrations entailed fertility celebrations and coupling with the traditional animal sacrifices and feasting.

Mosaic depicting Lupercalia ritual of hitting woman with goat skin for fertility

The celebration involved a sacrificial goat whose hide was cut into strips (called thongs!) which were then taken by the luperci (priests) around town whipping women (naked no less) with them. The symbolic beating was thought to enhance fertility in women. Because it focused on couples, Lupercalia is thought to have served as the inspiration for the modern Valentine's Day.

Valentines' Day became an official celebration when Pope Gelasius I of Rome, in A.D. 496, banned Lupercalia as a pagan ritual and declared February 14 instead as a day to honor the Christian martyr, Saint Valentine. Valentine was a Catholic priest who was executed by the Roman Emperor Claudius II for assisting persecuted Christians and secretly marrying Christian couples in love. He was later named a saint and became the patron saint of love and friendship. Thankfully, the animal sacrifice and bizarre rituals of Lupercalia came to be replaced with the exchanging of cards and flowers. Hope y'all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!💟

Sources:

https://time.com/5527259/valentines-day-lupercalia/
https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/lupercalia#lupercalia-and-the-legend-of-romulus-and-remus

Comments

Origin of Neurology

As I consider majoring in neurobiology (the study of the biological mechanisms that control the nervous system) in college, I thought it would be interesting to delve into the origins of neuroscience. For hundreds of years from the ancient Egyptians to the Greeks, humans believed that the seat of intellect was the heart (which is why the ancient Egyptians went to great lengths to preserve the heart after death but discarded the brain!) The birth of neurology began 2500 years ago with Hippocrates who pondered over the purpose and functioning of the brain, reasoning that the brain must be the organ controlling sensation simply because most sensory organs - eyes, ears, and tongue -- are located close to the brain. This was starkly different from other opinions of the time which held that the heart was the main organ that controlled everything in humans. The brain was simply thought to be a "radiator" for pumping the heart and keeping it cool. Later, Hippocrates expanded ...

Rx Symbol

Have you ever wondered why medicines are denoted with an ℞ or Rx symbol? There are actually many theories about its origin but the most common one is that the symbol for prescriptions originated from the "Eye of Horus", which was an ancient Egyptian symbol associated with healing powers. According to Egyptian mythology, Horus lost his eye in battle but his mom used her powers to restore his eye, hence it became a symbol of healing. Eye of Horus In the 2 nd century, Greek physician Galen adapted this symbol to impress his patients. Galen’s influence on medicine was so strong that even the symbol was borrowed through the centuries and it eventually evolved into the modern symbol Rx (the eye of Horus kinda looks like an Rx). Other theories place its origin in Latin and Roman times. One theory is that Rx was used as an abbreviation of the Latin word recipere , meaning “to prepare,” which physicians wrote on medical prescriptions. Yet another theory points to the similarity of...

History of the Flu

As the possibility of a major coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. turns to reality, I figured it would be useful to do more research into the history and evolution of the family of viruses that coronavirus belongs to— influenza. One of the oldest diseases in mankind’s history dating back 2400 years, the flu is caused by the influenza virus, which was isolated only in the 1930s after the 1918 Spanish flu, the biggest flu pandemic in history. This pandemic killed over half a million people in the United States and around 50 million (some estimates are as high as 100 million) worldwide. The Spanish flu had a mortality rate between 2-20% and it lowered the average life expectancy of the American population by more than 12 years. Compared to that flu outbreak, the current coronavirus pandemic pales in significance, surely thanks to our current knowledge of epidemiology and the proactive measures taken by governments to curb the spread of the virus, rather than any change in the leth...

History of Medicine

Search This Blog