Pagan origin of Valentine's Day (Get the whip)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly, VD, Feb. 14th, 2023, Wiki edit Lupercalia; Thedilettantesociety.co.uk

Lupercalia and the Ancient Origins of Valentine's Day (thedilettantesociety.co.uk)

Be my bloody Valentine's: Lupercalia, February 15th | Ancient Rome (pinterest.com)

I just want us to celebrate Lupercalia the traditional way, Dakota. - OK, Christian, okay.

.

I'm down to be whipped.

"Be my bloody Valentine's," we say. What is the origin of Valentine's Day? It's the worship of wolves and purification by whipping called Lupercalia.

(TDS) Valentine's Day marks the "season of love" and courtship, but its ancient roots in the Roman festival of Lupercalia reveal a bloodier and wilder history.

It is no coincidence that across different cultures and religions there are festivals and holy days (or "holidays" as we now call them) that fall around similar dates.

Valentine's Day spanking? No, thanks.

Whether it be Samhain (pronounced \sao-win\) and Halloween, Yule and Christmas, or Lupercalia and St. Valentine's Day, a lineage of tradition can be traced back to these specific times of year.

Taking a look at the festivities of our ancient human ancestors tends to reveal the cultural twists and turns we have taken over the years and allows us to inspect our own modern traditions to see their irrationalities and idiosyncrasies more clearly. More

This was a pastoral festival that Ancient Rome observed annually on February 15th to purify the city, promoting health and fertility [1].

Lupercalia was also known as dies Februatus, after the "purification instruments" called februa, the reason for calling this month Februarius.

Name

Skull of Catholic Saint Valentine at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Dublin (TDS)

The worship of wolves and wolfmen/dogmen?

The festival was originally known as Februa ("Purifications" or "Purgings") after all the februum used on this day [2].

It was also known as Februatus and gave its name variously as an epithet to Juno Februalis, Februlis, or Februata in her role as patron deity of the month to a supposed purification deity called Februus [3], and to February (mensis Februarius), the month during which the festival occurred [2].

Lupus: There’s new footage of a “giant wolf” roaming around Montana, USA (msn.com)

Women of Rome shrink back as men use purification whips to purge them (Museo del Prado)

Ovid connects februare to an Etruscan word for "purging" [4]. The name Lupercalia was believed in antiquity to evince some connection with the Ancient Greek festival of the Arcadian Lykaia, or wolf [and wolfman] festival (Greek λύκος, lýkos, Latin lupus), and the worship of Lycaean Pan, assumed to be a Greek equivalent to Faunus, as instituted by Evander [5].

Justin describes a cult image of "the Lycaean god, whom the Greeks call Pan and the Romans Lupercus," as nude except for a modest goatskin girdle [6].

Rome founded thanks to a she-wolf

Spank, OK, but whips and chains? I ain't Rihanna

The statue stood in the Lupercal, the cave where tradition held that Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf (Lupa). The cave lay at the foot of the Palatine Hill, on which Romulus was thought to have founded Rome [7].

The name of the festival most likely derives from lupus, "wolf," though both the etymology (the study of a word's origins) and its significance are obscure.

Despite Justin's assertion, no deity named "Lupercus" has ever been identified [8]. But the whipping of women in the public square is still on. Line up, ladies. More

Guardians of the Forest: Amazon (video)

Thomson Reuters Foundation, May 13, 2019; Xochitl, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Frontline with the Guardians of the Forest

Guardians of the Forest are an indigenous volunteer force who risk their lives patrolling a protected area of the Amazon rainforest by destroying illegal logger camps. Land invasions are on the rise as fears of more conflict spread across the region.

• Indigenous Guardian of the Forest murdered in Brazil

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1. News: news.trust.org
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The foundation welcomes all comments that contribute constructively to the debate and reserves the right to remove any posting if, in its opinion, a post does not comply with the content standards set out in the Acceptable Use Policy on news.trust.org.

Flogging for sex talk show

King scraps Saudi woman flogging for sex talk show
Donna Abu-nasr (AP, Oct 26, 2009)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia's king waived a flogging sentence on a female journalist charged for involvement in a risque TV show, the second such pardoning of such a high profile case by the monarch in recent years. King Abdullah's decision to waive 22-year-old journalist Rozanna al-Yami's sentence of 60 lashes by a judge in Jiddah follows intense international media attention. More>>

• NPR: Saudi journalist spared flogging for sex talk show
• Honduras' Tourism Minister: "Don't visit my country!" (Time.com)
• Have hotel, need haircut: Barter schemes are booming
• Latvian experts say meteorite crater was hoax
• Madoff associate had heart attack, drowned in pool
• The Week in Photos

The "Taliban Flogging"

WQ COMMENTARY

BBC VIDEO (0:58) Public flogging of teenage girl in Pakistan. A chief justice has ordered the girl be brought from the north-western Swat Valley. Apparent members holding, beating, and ordering her brother to help as she cries out in pain. More>>

The Issue
Much has been made of video of a "brutal" beating of a Pakistani girl accused of adultery. This has, it is said, galvanized the populations of Pakistan and Afghanistan to side with the West as it invades and destabilizes their governments. Homegrown terrorists are less of a problem than an external armed force imposing its will. WQ decided to investigate.

The segment of video available through the BBC and many other outlets is hardly spectacular and could well be fake. But assuming its authenticity, it is hard to see how this footage would incense peace loving people around the world to condone violence or despise radical tribal Muslims.

The Meaning
The act and even the threat of the act is reprehensible. Public floggings are not acceptable. (Private floggings in secret detention camps run by the US Army, the CIA, and even more secretive spy rings are okay -- so long as those extrajudicial punishments are for a good cause, such as Apple Pie, Freedom, and of course Security). And yet far more reprehensible is the invasion by the United States in a false flag operation seeking out Osama bin Laden (a.k.a. Nineteen Eighty-Four's "Emmanuel Goldstein").

The Conclusion

Abandon hate. Love even the Taliban, a propped up organization used by the US to justify invasion and covert military actions when people stop believing in the all-powerful "Al Qaeda" boogieman network. Understand that PSYOPS and propagandists exploit what they can to promote war: War is first in the heart, as a media event instigating support, then an act of terror.

Serb priest fired for beatings

Irish Catholic priests and nun beat and rape students

Chinese occupiers beat Tibetan monks

Burmese jailers beat and torture political prisoners

Sri Lankan soldiers beat Tamil rebels

Kohistan nerves
Pakistani district fears Swat conflict will spill over.