Happy St. Valentine’s Day/Single’s Awareness Day (SAD)

Lupercalia (Valentine’s Day) 15 February – (The 14th for Saint Valentine being a pre-emptive usurpation of the Roman Ides of February pre-spring fertility celebration. Not an actual Sabbat but still a sentimental favorite.) The wolves come down from the hills around Rome looking for a little nosh. Note that this is about two weeks after the Imbolc solar cross-quarter; if the groundhog didn’t see it’s shadow (and remained out) Winter ends here, if it did see it’s shadow (and returned to it’s lair to resume it’s nap) Winter ends about six weeks later than Imbolc, at Ostaera, the next Sabbat. Those celebrants who consider themselves adventurous and hardy enough may wish to emulate a Roman tradition that makes the running of the bulls in Pamplona look like English high tea. Ready? After the usual excessive drinking, the attendant women strip naked (always a promising start) and are chased by men bearing flails, whips or strips of leather who “warm” the women’s bottoms by vigorous application of those tools while chasing them. When the women decide their asses are sufficiently heated they are “caught” by the pursuing men who apply the pre-warmed bottoms to the ground to “break the ice”, sometimes literally, and thus prepare the ground for ploughing, both human and agricultural. All women’s secretions are allowed to drip directly onto the ground further preparing the ground for planting, this is the woman’s precious bodily fluid contribution mirrored by the God’s blood at a Sabbat to be discussed later.
Warned ya.

From “The Pagan Wheel of the Year”
http://paganlibrary.com/humor/pagan_wheel.php