Februa

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Februa

Postby Anonymous on Fri Jun 06, 2003 6:22 am

It began with a wild Bacchanal on February 14th and was followed by (about) 40 days of fasting until the Equinox.
Sound familar?
It was called Februa and the party was the feast of Lupercalia (the she-wolf).

I think that in a distant time, when we lived in small tribal groups, this ritual began for the following reasons:
By about February food is starting to get pretty sparse. Any food put away at the last harvest has either been eaten or spoiled. The first shoots of the spring are weeks away.
All the readily available game has been taken and there are no young to be killed yet.

It is a time of hunger and short temper. Everyone wonders what their neighbor has hidden, whether they are also as hungry.

So they throw (almost) all the food into one big feast, drink up their wine, mead, or beer, and everyone shares in the hunger until the Equinox.

Of course there is no way to substantiate any of this. It is just my conjecture.

And by the way, I practice Februa. As a way of honoring my Goddess I give up her favorite offerings for that period. Unfortunately for me, since she is South American, these include chocolate, coffee, rum, and fruit. It is a very long 40 days!

Bene,
Gentilis
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Re: Februa

Postby Gnaeus Dionysius Draco on Fri Jun 06, 2003 10:34 am

Salve Gentilis,

Gentilis Victoriosus wrote:It began with a wild Bacchanal on February 14th and was followed by (about) 40 days of fasting until the Equinox.
Sound familar?
It was called Februa and the party was the feast of Lupercalia (the she-wolf).


Although I can't say much about your conjectures, I might add that the Lupercalia was also a festival of fertility and revolved around youths coming to an age of (sexual) maturity. Some sources claim that Valentine's Day descended from this old Roman practise. The christian emperors had a very hard time forbidding this festival, so they would have converted it into a christian festival (as happened on numerous other occasions too).

Compared to running around the City half-naked with whips (and crazed women throwing themselves at these whips), Valentine's Day is a bit dry, don't you think? ;).

Oh by the way, as the much-dreaded Latin Inquisition here I might note that the female of "lupus" (wolf) is "lupa". As far as I can tell "lupercalia" is a neutrum plural and would probably be loosely translated as "fetival of the wolf/wolves". The "wolf-men", who guided the rituals, after all, were called luperci.

Vale bene!
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Lupercalia/VD

Postby Anonymous on Fri Jun 06, 2003 6:12 pm

Salve Draco,

Compared to running around the City half-naked with whips (and crazed women throwing themselves at these whips), Valentine's Day is a bit dry, don't you think?

Gee, that sounds pretty much how we celebrate VD (and several other holidays) here in San Francisco.

I was just repeating the bad Latin that I read somewhere but I'm always happy to learn.
In any case, the wolf being such a deep seated symbol for hunger in Western culture, the Festival of the Wolves seems to add credence to my conjecture, don't you think?


I was trying to say 'Gentle-Victorious' for my username since that is the meaning of my name in Irish (Coemhin Cairnaigh). I used the Indo-European index in my dictionary to find Latin root words but do not have a clue as to proper conjugation of Latin words.
Any suggestions?

Bene,
Gentilis
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Postby Gnaeus Dionysius Draco on Fri Jun 06, 2003 7:48 pm

Salve Gentilis,

"Gentilis" is Latin but it doesn't mean "gentle"; it means "member of a gens". A "gens" was a group of families with a common name and background.

As for a Latin version of your name, here's my suggestion:

"Placidus" for "gentle", "peaceful", "placid".

I'm not sure if "victoriosus" exists and if it doesn't, what would be an alternative to it. The closest I can think of is the substantive "victor", which simply means "victor". I'm not sure if there even is a translation for "victorious" in Latin.

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Postby Marcus Pomponius Lupus on Fri Jun 06, 2003 8:32 pm

Salvete,

Sometimes, Latin can be easier than you think, they have the word "victoriosus", meaning just that, "victorious" ;-)

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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Sat Jun 07, 2003 3:11 am

Salve

Gentilis Victoriosus wrote:It began with a wild Bacchanal on February 14th and was followed by (about) 40 days of fasting until the Equinox.
Sound familar?


Certainly. It sounds like Mardi Gras and Lent, but it has not a thing to do with februa, or the Roman month of February, or Lupercalia, and where did this Bacchanal come from? To what are you actually referring?


As to your conjecture, you might wish to reconsider what the growing cycle of the Romans actually was at the time the Lupercalia was instituted. During the Archaic period Roman agriculture was on a winter wheat cycle, from September to May. Lupercalia would fall just after the harvest of crops sown in September and the new sowings made in late January through early February for the spring harvest. There was no viticulture as yet. The summer months were too hot to have a growing season for the crops they relied on then. Lupercalia is associated with the pastorialists coming into town, to market, because things were plentiful at that time of year, not because they were running out of stored crops.

A little more Latin for you to learn.
IN SILVAM NE LIGNA FERAS

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Februa/Lupercalia

Postby Anonymous on Sat Jun 07, 2003 8:35 am

My dictionary lists February as etymologically derived from februa and also describe februa as a purification ritual that takes place on Feb 15, the same day as Lupercalia. The former being Sabine in origin.

I realize that I should have used the word bacchanal, not Bacchanal to describe the festival as described by others above.

And if you had read my initial conjecture more critically you would have seen that I was careful to describe the origins as taking place in distantly pre-Roman times.
Perhaps in a small hunter-gatherer society that probably predated the Empire by 20-30,000 years, not an agricultural superpower like Rome which was importing huge amounts of grain from Egypt year-round.

" These different wheats can be further broken down into the winter and spring wheats. Winter wheats are planted in the fall of the year and must begin growing before winter comes. The top 'winter kills,' but just as soon as spring arrives, they jump back into life. Winter wheats can be harvested earlier in the year than spring wheats."
This description of winter wheat comes from the Walton website and is pretty sparse on historical details but full of agricultural ones.

Bene,
GV
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Postby Horatius Piscinus on Sat Jun 07, 2003 10:55 am

Salve Gentile

Februa refers to anything used for purification. You might see Ovid's explanation in the Fast. Varro claimed it was a Sabine word. The entire month of February is devoted to purification, culminating with Feralia. Lupercalia has an aspect of purification to it and is also a rite to induce fertility by warding off disease from the village community.

The rites of the Religio Romana may be traced to some precedents that can be shown in earlier periods, perhaps as far back to the Italian Neolitica, but 20-30,000 years ago? I don't think so. Lupercali, from what is known of it, as a rite of purifying the Palatine, would place its origins after permanent settlements began to appear on the Palatine, after Gemellus and Palatinus united into one community, but prior to the union of the Palatine with communities on other hills. That would place its origin at the earliest in the 9th century, more likely the 8th and possibly as late as 650 BCE. This is not the rite of hunters and gatherers, and unlikely of migratory pastorialists, too. It is related more to the later lustrationes, purifying a place by a rite encircling it. Lupercalia is a rite of village dwellers.

The Bacchanates did not arrive in Rome until the second century B.C.E. Viticulture before then, but not available in the Archaic period. It is generally accepted that the rites that specifically call for milk as an offering and disallows wine would be the oldest Roman rites, and these, by tradition would go back to Romulus and Numa. Wine was supposedly newly introduced in Numa's period. The Lupercali supposedly predates Romulus. To describe this rite of purification as a bacchanalia would seem to me to demean its significance and sanctity. As to its timing, I think your characterization is off the mark as well. The Roman cycle has a month of purification just before the beginning of the new year, which would be regarded as the first full moon of spring, that is the Ides of March. If you want to talk about the ritual's origin then consider it in context rather than how it may have appeared later, or in how some from other religions have tried to characterize the rites of the Religio Romana as a way to discredit them. You did try to place it in context, but I think your assumptions on that are wrong.

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