The Week's End of Lupercalia

-By Jim Culp

 

We, modern Pagans, have re-defined our rituals and holidays to our tastes, and taken this and that from Roman, Greek, and Celtic traditions. We don't really care whether one wants to call this weekend Lupercalia, Lykaia, or Pan. The ideas are relatively the same. The festival and ritual were about cleansing the town, community, or village of nasty spirits. Today we recognize it was a time where we purge unhealthy thoughts and give our minds new vitality. We do this in many ways. It's up to the person what they actually want to do; no one holds a gun to your head and tell you "it's what god wants."

Tomorrow Christians the world over will celebrate Valentine's Day.

It is remembered officially and the Roman Catholic Church has given a person Sainthood that no one really has any clue whether the guy officially lived or when he died, only that they think he was martyred {slain for claiming belief in Christianity} at some point and that there is a grave marker in Northern Rome. No one really knows if it was one guy or two, or really who the fuck the guy was, and so forth.  

Also tomorrow, millions of people (religious and secular) worldwide will give their lovers, wives, husbands, and even children gifts of some sort. They will spend billions, yes billions (about $13.3) buying flowers, plants, candy, stuffed animals, cards, and many other things as symbolic gestures of their love to that significant person.

The whole concept is ludicrous to me, but to each his/her own.

 Yesterday, a person told me that he was sick of hearing that all Christian holidays evolved from Pagan holidays. Well shit, dude, the truth hurts, doesn't it?