Unabashed

As custom, Christians have decided against celebrating biblical holidays in favor of those holidays they stole from pagans. Among them: Christmas, Easter, and, of course, Valentine’s Day. As described in this great article on Fatemag.com about the history of VD, the holiday originated as a devilish lupine romp through the village featuring rape, beatings, bloodletting, lycanthropy, sacrifice, etc. Here’s an exerpt:

Lupus (wolf) itself is not an authentic or original Latin word, but was borrowed from the Sabine dialect. Luperca, the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus, may have given rise to secret fraternities known as the Luperci, who sacrificed she-goats at the entrances to their “wolves’ dens.” For centuries, the Luperci observed an annual ritual of chasing women through the streets of Roman cities and beating them with leather thongs.Scholars generally agree that such a violent expression of eroticism celebrated the ancient behavior of primitive hunting tribes corraling captive women. Once a wolfman had ensnared a woman with his whip or thong, he would lead her away to be his wife or lover for as long as the “romance” lasted. Perhaps, as some scholars theorize, this yearly rite of lashing at women and lassoing them with leather thongs became a more acceptable substitute for the bloodlust of the Luperci’s latent werewolfism that in days past had seen them tearing the flesh of innocent victims with their teeth. As the Romans grew ever more sophisticated, the Lupercali would be celebrated by a man binding the lady of his choice wrist to wrist, and later by passing a billet to his object of desire, suggesting a romantic rendezvous in some secluded place.

Ooh, be still my lycanthropic heart :-)

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: holidays, lycanthropy, valentine's day, werewolf, werewolves