Valentine's Day, Those freaky Romans and the romance of a key party

     While as a culture we take many ideas and customs about government and economics from the ancient Romans, some of the most taboo ideas come from the Romans' open sexuality.  In ancient Rome, there was a sexual openess not commonly practiced in today's civilized world. As many people know, the "Sex Houses" or "Bath Houses" in ancient Rome were a common practice visited by both men and women. There was a sexual pervasivness to their culture that we living in the 21st century may find either perverse or enlightening. And this brings us to Valentine's Day. While Valentine's Day has become a day for our  ideas of romance, that was not always the case.
     Prior to the 1st Century AD, the Romans between the days of Feb 13th-15th would celebrate the festival of Lupercalia. The Lupercalia was a festival of fertility meant to bring growth to many things. Pun intended. And while it was supposed to make the land and crops fertile for the coming year, it is not what it's known for. The men of Rome started the festival by sacrificing goats and dogs in honor of the Roman God Lupercus, the god of sheperds. They would skin the animals, get really drunk, strip naked, and run the the streets while whipping "privileged" women with the hides. The theory being that the women could become fertile from this. And this is where it gets really freaky. As the day continued into the evening, perhaps with the help of their alcohol, the women and men wanted to take advantage of their new fertility. Womens names were put in a jar and the men drew names to choose a mate for the evening and maybe longer. So no, swingers from the 70's did not invent the "key party". Now if you weren't entirely happy with your mate, then you put your name back in the jar the next two nights.
     In the 3rd century, on seperate occasions, Emperor Claudius II executed two men named Valentine. The Catholic Church used this to create St. Valentine's Day. Some 200 years later, St. Valentines Day was combined with the Lupercalia Festival to create a day of fertility and love. The current existence of Valentine's Day morphed from this celebration. So when you give or receive candy and flowers on Valentine's Day, remember to thank those freaky ass Romans cause without those horny drunk bastards we may never know what chocolate covered caramel tastes like. I know there's a Hallmark card in there somewhere.