Old rites for young love

Getting that box of chocolate for a loved one? Maybe a greeting card or even flowers?

Well, that’s all good and well in today’s world, but in ancient Rome, that would have been pretty lame, to say the least, for a mid-February love celebration.

On Feb. 15, the day of the Lupercalia fertility festival, young men would run through the streets of ancient Rome with bloodied strips of goat hide, probably from a newly sacrificed goat. Young women who touched those strips, it was thought, would increase their fertility, says Christopher Bellitto, assistant professor of history at Kean University in Union, N.J.

“Now the question is: Does Lupercalia have anything to do with Valentine’s Day? I don’t think so, but some people link the two,” says Mr. Bellitto, who teaches courses in ancient history. “I think it’s a matter of coincidence.”

He explains that Lupercalia had been celebrated for several hundred years when, in the A.D. 490s, as Rome was in its death throws, Pope Gelasius I banned the festival and replaced it with St. Valentine’s Day.

“As the Roman Empire and paganism collapse, Christianity typically fills that void,” Mr. Bellitto says. “St. Valentine’s Day is an example of that.”

The day marked the death of St. Valentine, probably with Mass being celebrated in his name. In those days, the day was not in any way connected to love and affection. That came hundreds of years later. But who was St. Valentine, a man relevant enough to replace the festive and crazy Lupercalia?

“God only knows,” says Judith Hallett, professor and chairwoman of classics at the University of Maryland at College Park. “There is so much early church mythology. … It would have had to have been someone who had a horrible death.”

In fact, there is so much uncertainty about who St. Valentine was — there were at least two priests by that name in the A.D. 200s, and both faced horrible deaths that had nothing to do with love — that the Vatican took the day off the Catholic Church calendar of saints in the 1960s.

“The Catholic Church started replacing legends with history,” Mr. Bellitto says.

St. Valentine didn’t make the cut, and neither did the popular St. Christopher, patron of bachelors and travelers, who used to be celebrated on July 25.

Ms. Hallett agrees with Mr. Bellitto’s view on the Lupercalia. It was not a precursor to Valentine’s Day, she says. Instead, she points to a March 1 festival that celebrated Juno (the goddess of marriage) and love between spouses.

“Husbands would give their wives presents — jewelry, clothes, flowers and probably slaves,” Ms. Hallett says.

However, marriage in Rome was not what it is — or at least aspires to be — today.

“Marriage had nothing to do with people’s feelings. Why should you let temporary passion control your life?” Ms. Hallett says. “It was an alliance between families. Marriages were arranged; it was not about ‘living happily ever after.’”

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