The month of February sees us focus on Love and Romance as we all hope to be remembered by that someone special in our lives on Valentine’s Day.  When researching the history of this day, I was interested to find that its origins reside in an ancient pagan Roman festival known as Lupercalia. This was virtually an erotic carnival, celebrated every year on the 15th February in honour of Lupercus, the Roman god of fertility.

Its origins go back to the Romans as a shepherding people. The rituals involved the sacrifice of goats (proverbial for their sexual energy) by young noble men who then ate and drank heavily, clad themselves scantily in the goat skins, from which they also cut long, thin strips. Holding these thongs in their hands, they ran through the streets of the city, lightly lashing everyone they saw, especially women, who used to gather voluntarily for…