Each year on February 14th, thousands of people celebrate by exchanging cards, chocolates, gifts or flowers with their special “valentine.”
But did you know the day of romance we call Valentine’s Day dates back to pre-Christian origins, involving nudity and whipping?In ancient Rome, 13th, 14th and 15th February were celebrated as Lupercalia, a pagan fertility festival. This seems to be the basis for a celebration of love on these dates and was marked in subtly different ways involving young men stripping naked and using dog or goat skins whips to spank the bottoms of young women in order to improve their fertility. An early form of IVF perhaps…
