Valentine's

February 14, 2001 1:14 PM

Valentine's Day may be a remant of the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, in which "young men who were naked except for the skins of goats that had been sacrificed this day, ran from the Lupercal around the bounds of the Palatine . . . striking the women they met with strips of goat skin, to promote fertility."

This factoid resists my every attempt to add further comment.
posted by jbushnell (3 comments total)

Hey, there's a place I know downtown that does the same thing every saturday night...
posted by Perigee at 1:22 PM on February 14, 2001

So that;s how it is done. And we wanted to adopt a child from China. Will give this a try.
posted by Postroad at 3:35 PM on February 14, 2001

Gives a whole new meaning to "getting someone's goat"....
posted by darren at 6:41 AM on February 15, 2001