Thursday, February 15, 2007

Happy Lupercalia! (Edit: ancient variant of furries "yiffing"?)

It's too bad that so many nifty old Roman holidays were sanitized. Just as Saturnalia sounds like more fun than Christmas is (and Christmas is pretty fun), Lupercalia beats the heck out of St. Valentines day.

Sacrificial rites, ritualistic whippings, drugs, an ancient variant of the modern "key club", and Werewolves? I'll take that over little candy hearts anyday.

Edit: I'm not sure, but some sources I've read said that part of the ritual involved young men running around in wolf skins to symbolize the she-wolf spirit that Romulus and Remus nursed from.

If that's true, then that whole thing of people dressing up like vaguely anthropomorphic animals for sexual purposes may be way older than any of us thought.

(Wonder how the Second Life crew are going to celebrate?)

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