Lupercales

In the ancient Rome, the Lupercales are celebrated annual festivals with Rome by the Luperques the February 15th, close to a named cave Lupercal (located at the foot of the Palatin and really discovered in November 2007), in the honor of the god of the herds, Faunus Lupercus.

Unfolding

The festival of Lupercales is a festival of purification which takes place in Rome on February fifteen (i.e. to the Roman end of the year, which began on March 1st), the twelve Luperques, priests of Faunus, sacrificed a goat to their god in the cave of Lupercal (with the foot of the Palatin) where, according to the legend, the she-wolf had nursed Romulus and Rémus. Two young men, vêtus only of one loincloth in skin of goat, attended the ceremony. The priest sacrificator their key the face of his knife. Then blood is wiped of a flake of Laine soaked in the Lait. At this time, young people must laugh with the glares. Then they run in all the town of Rome; they are armed with thin straps cut in the skin of the sacrificed goat with which they whip the women who want a child in the year that they meet on their passage to make them fertile.

Significances

The festival of Lupercales is a festival of purification, at the end of the year.

It is also a festival of passage: the sacrifice in the cave is symbolic system of the Mort; the laughter with the glares, which occurs after the purification, symbolizes the return of the vital breath, and thus the Résurrection.

The goat is him a symbol of fruitfulness.

Some consider that with the Liberalia and the Mamuralia, which took place from February 15th to March 15th, they belong to a cycle of initiatory rites marking the end of childhood for the Romans.

End

In 494, the pope Gélase I {{prohibited er}} and condemns this pagan festival. He chooses holy Valentine like patron saint of promised in marriage and in love, and issues that this date (on February 14th, day of its festival) would be devoted to him.

Archaeological discovery of the cave of Lupercales

The Italian Minister for the culture announced in November 2007 the discovery by the archeologists in charge of the excavations with Palatine of the cave which sheltered the ceremonies of the lupercales, and which would have, according to the account traditional, accommodated the she-wolf and the twins Romulus and Rémus. They are research relating to the foundations of the buildings of the imperial palace which fortuitously revealed a cave whose ceiling is with seven meters of surface. Filled of waste, this one was for the moment only accessible to a probe. With a height of approximately nine meters, it is equipped with a vault 7 meters in diameter approximately, decorated with mosaics and shell. The representation of an eagle at the top of the vault lets think of a repair at the time of Auguste. The decoration of the vault one of is best preserved than one knows. So according to the archeologist Andrea Carandini the identification of the cave with the lupercale is certain, it already made the object of criticism: thus, according to the archeologist Fausto Zevi, the cave could be only a Nymphée depend on the imperial palace.

Random links: