The ancient Roman festival Lupercalia (\u201cfestival of the wolf\u201d) is considered to be one precursor to Valentine\u2019s Day. Celebrated from February 13-15, it was a purification and fertility ceremony. Reminiscent of the modern-day exchange of love notes on Valentine\u2019s Day, boys would draw a girl\u2019s name from a box on the eve of the festival and then escort her to the festival the next day.<\/p>\n
During the ancient Roman festival, two boys would run through crowds of people swinging strings made from goatskins. If the strings touched a girl, it was divined that she would have healthy children when she grew up. The goatskins were called februa, which means to make clean and from which \u201cFebruary\u201d derives.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ancient Roman festival Lupercalia (\u201cfestival of the wolf\u201d) is considered to be one precursor to Valentine\u2019s Day. Celebrated from February 13-15, it was a purification and fertility ceremony. Reminiscent of the modern-day exchange of love notes on Valentine\u2019s Day, boys would draw a girl\u2019s name from a box on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":6672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,369],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-fun-facts","column","threecol","has-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"\n