Love and Lupercalia

What is love, really? It’s an exchange of energy. Love is subjective. Love can be unconditional or full of rules. There’s true love and pure love and aligned love. There’s also limerance and lust. All strong, powerful emotions necessary to the human experience. We learn the most when in love, platonically or romantically, as we face the mirror of ourselves in someone else’s eyes.

St. Valentine’s Day was named over the pagan festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated February 13-15th. This festival celebrated fertility and agricultural abundance. Valentine’s Day still carries some Lupercalia traditions. The Valentine’s Day colors, red and white, symbolize the blood sacrifice and goats milk rituals that began each Lupercalia to honor the wolf Lupa who raised Romulus and Remus in Roman myth.

So what does Valentine’s Day mean to us now? A day to celebrate our loved ones, romantic, platonic, or familial. The rise of popularity in Galentine’s Day shows the importance of celebrating our friendships. With bare trees and hope that spring will come again, we practice gratitude for the important people in our lives.