Lupercalia

Lupercalia (lpərkāl`yə), ancient Roman festival held annually on Feb. 15. The ceremony of the festival was intended to secure fertility and keep out evil. Two male youths, clad in animal skin, ran around the city slapping passersby with strips of goat skin. Because the youths impersonated male goats (the embodiment of sexuality), the ceremony was believed to be in honor of Faunus. The festival survived into Christian times and was not abolished until the end of the 5th cent.

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Lupercalia

Ancient Roman festival held each February 15. Its origins are uncertain, but the likely derivation of its name from lupus (Latin: “wolf”) may signal a connection with a primitive deity who protected herds from wolves or with the legendary she-wolf who nursed Romulus and Remus. Each Lupercalia began with the sacrifice of goats and a dog; two of its priests (Luperci) were then led to the altar and their foreheads were anointed with blood. After all had feasted, the Luperci cut thongs from the skins of the sacrificed animals and ran around the Palatine hill, striking at any woman who came near them; a blow from the thong was supposed to bestow fertility.

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Lupercalia

February 15

This was an ancient Roman festival during which worshippers gathered at a grotto on the Palatine Hill in Rome called the Lupercal, where Rome's legendary founders, Romulus and Remus, had been suckled by a wolf. The sacrifice of goats and dogs to the Roman deities Lupercus and Faunus was part of the ceremony. Luperci (priests of Lupercus) dressed in goatskins and, smeared with the sacrificial blood, would run about striking women with thongs of goat skin. This was thought to assure them of fertility and an easy delivery. The name for these thongs— februa —meant "means of purification" and eventually gave the month of February its name. There is some reason to believe that the Lupercalia was a forerunner of modern Valentine's Day customs. Part of the ceremony involved putting girls' names in a box and letting boys draw them out, thus pairing them off until the next Lupercalia.

SOURCES:
AmerBkDays-2000, p. 106
BkHolWrld-1986, Feb 14
DaysCustFaith-1957, p. 54
DictDays-1988, p. 70
DictRomRel-1996, p. 136
FestRom-1981, p. 76
FestSaintDays-1915, p. 34
OxYear-1999, p. 80

Celebration day: Feb 15

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Lupercalia 

in ancient Rome, celebrations in honor of Lupercus, one of the names of the god Faunus, the protector of the herds. During the celebration, Lupercal priests dressed in the skins of sacrificed goats ran around the boundaries of the Palatine Hill striking passersby, especially women, with leather thongs. The festival of Lupercalia was linked to the ancient fertility rites and was celebrated annually on February 15 until late antiquity.