LOVERS' DAY OR BLOODY FESTIVAL?

According to www.rd.com, Valentine’s Day has its roots in Paganism. A Pagan fertility festival called “Lupercalia” was celebrated in February and was dedicated to the God of Agriculture, Faunus, and the founders, Remus and Romulus. The festival was far from the cute love we know today and was mostly about whipping young women to make them more fertile and giving them away to men. However, according to www.rd.com, Pope Gelasius I wanted to wipe out the Pagan festival, so he integrated Lupercalia with St. Valentine’s Day in the fifth century. This is how, with the help of writers such as Shakespeare, a bloody festival became the sweet lover’s day we know in pop culture. How romantic for us women