Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. Today’s post is about Lupercalia, the ancient festival traditionally held on February 15th, hence why I have chosen to write about it today! In particular, I will be looking at how the traditions of Lupercalia were presented and used in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina episode simply titled ‘Lupercalia.’
The origins of Lupercalia cannot be traced with complete certainty, but the ancient festival was celebrated from at least the 6th Century BC. Many people tie this festival to Valentine’s Day, for obvious reasons, given that it was celebrated on February 15, however, Lupercalia is much more centered on Sexuality than Love! This was a Roman festival full of blood that included sacrifices of animals, which was a common occurrence in many ancient celebrations. The sacrifice of the animals likely held the hope for blessings of the fertility of the land and people.
After the sacrifice of the goats (the animals traditionally sacrificed during Lupercalia) the foreheads of two naked Priests, known as Luperci were smeared with the goat blood and then wiped off with milk-soaked wool. The Lupeci were supposed to be laughing when this was performed within the tradition of the Ritual. This part is shown in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, not with sacrifice, but the blood on the forehead wiped off by milk is shown, as is the tradition of laughing while doing it. In the show, they have the characters pair off for a three-night celebration (February 13-15) and the paired couple do this blood and milk tradition to one another!
In the ancient festival, after the feast of Lupercal, the hide of the sacrificed goats was cut into strips and the revelers ran naked or nearly naked around whipping women. There was also a tradition of men randomly choosing a woman’s name, and they would be the couple that would spend this sexy holiday together, sometimes remaining a couple until the next year’s festival, which reminds me greatly of the year and a day of handfastings that occurred during Beltane during ancient times in other parts of the world!
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina also took its own spin on this with a dancing ritual to choose mates, which involved a Maypole of sorts, which adds to my comparison to Beltane. The show had the young men chasing their chosen mates around the woods on the final night of the ritual wearing animal skins, with the young women in red cloaks (a Red Riding Hood reference), which seems inspired by the chasing and whipping of women that occurred during Lupecalia! I do appreciate how the show drew inspiration from this very sexy and even violent Sexuality and Fertility Festival to add a slightly more dangerous edge to the Valentine’s Day episode. It was also a good way to balance showing the more sweet romantic traditions with a bit of a darker precursor to said traditions.
I hope you have enjoyed this short look at Lupercalia and a brief analysis of how The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina utilized its traditions. What is the most interesting thing about Lupercalia to you? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a picture of the Maypole Ritual in the Lupercalia episode. I found the picture on https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/9/18300714/chilling-adventures-of-sabrina-lupercalia.
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Further Reading/Watching
- Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials Imbolc: Rituals, Recipes, & Lore for Brigid’s Day (Lupercalia is mentioned.)
- https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/lupercalia#
- https://www.npr.org/2011/02/14/133693152/the-dark-origins-of-valentines-day
- https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/FRALUP/home.html
- The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018)