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So let me get this straight...
Jan. 31st, 2009 01:47 pmSaturnalia was the ancient Roman Holiday dedicated to the god of agriculture, and celebrated with the giving of gifts, forgetting about formal business attire, and the symbolic, temporary, equality between slave and master.
Some of its rituals have survived in our modern Christmas, while the festival also became a Christian synecdoche for evil and debauchery in Pagan times, and a reason why some Christian Fundamentalists refuse to recognise Santa Claus.
Lupercalia was the ancient Roman Holiday dedicated to the wolf bitch that raised Romulous and Remus, in celebration the founding of Rome, and also of the shepherds not having their entire flocks ravaged by wolves over the winter. It was celebrated by the blood sacrifice of goats on the alter in the main square, and of married women being stripped naked and flogged with strips of the still bloody goat hide taken from the carcasses, to ensure their fertility.
Its place on the calender was Christainized in the form of Saint Valentine, who, according to legend (or a poem by Chaucer), was jailed for marrying Christians, then stoned, beaten and beheaded for trying to convert the emperor.
And this is the holiday we shove down kids' throats, as soon as they enter school, in an annual competition for superficial displays of affection, where little slips of paper are treated like score cards to see who can get the biggest, or the prettiest, pile?
Excuse me, but WTF (in this case, literally)?
This post was brought to you by Hallmark ads, and Valentine's Day-themed PBS kids' shows, that have begun to appear on my television set.
I need a valentine's day fail icon...
Some of its rituals have survived in our modern Christmas, while the festival also became a Christian synecdoche for evil and debauchery in Pagan times, and a reason why some Christian Fundamentalists refuse to recognise Santa Claus.
Lupercalia was the ancient Roman Holiday dedicated to the wolf bitch that raised Romulous and Remus, in celebration the founding of Rome, and also of the shepherds not having their entire flocks ravaged by wolves over the winter. It was celebrated by the blood sacrifice of goats on the alter in the main square, and of married women being stripped naked and flogged with strips of the still bloody goat hide taken from the carcasses, to ensure their fertility.
Its place on the calender was Christainized in the form of Saint Valentine, who, according to legend (or a poem by Chaucer), was jailed for marrying Christians, then stoned, beaten and beheaded for trying to convert the emperor.
And this is the holiday we shove down kids' throats, as soon as they enter school, in an annual competition for superficial displays of affection, where little slips of paper are treated like score cards to see who can get the biggest, or the prettiest, pile?
Excuse me, but WTF (in this case, literally)?
This post was brought to you by Hallmark ads, and Valentine's Day-themed PBS kids' shows, that have begun to appear on my television set.
I need a valentine's day fail icon...
