Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

The Inner World

The Civil World

The Natural World

Holidays & Festivals

Lupercalia

Roman Festivals

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Lupercalia was an archaic Roman purification and fertility festival held on 15 February at the Lupercal, the cave associated with the she-wolf and Romulus and Remus, in which members of the priestly brotherhood of Luperci, running near-naked, struck onlookers, especially women, with strips of goatskin believed to promote fertility. It survived, controversially, into the late fifth century CE, and Pope Gelasius I's campaign against it is one of the best documented instances of a Roman festival's suppression under Christianity.

Facts
Reckoning
Calendar System
Roman civil calendar 1
Its own record dates it to 15 February, matching Vestalia's already-established roman value in this same fill.
Date Rule
15 February. 1
Fixed or Movable
Fixed date in its own calendar 1
Observance
Observance Type
Purification 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Belongs to Tradition

Roman Religion, Religions
Source Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A HistoryMary Beard, John North and Simon Price

Related To

Saturnalia, Holidays & Festivals
Sources
1. Religions of Rome, Volume 1: A History
Mary Beard, John North and Simon Price, Cambridge University Press, 1998on Lupercalia and its suppressionView the Source
The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition
Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2012s.v. LupercaliaView the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.