Daily Archives: February 15, 2011

On this day, a band of priests called Luperci gathered at the Lupercal, sacrificed goats and a puppy and made offerings of a sacred grain mixture, mola salsa. Two youths were smeared on the forehead with the sacrificial blood, which was wiped off with swatches of milk-soaked wool. After a feast, they stripped off their clothes, wrapped themselves in the still-warm, still-wet skins of the sacrificed goats and ran around the circumference of the hill, striking everyone they met with goatskin thongs, called februa. Being struck by these whips was considered lucky for women who wanted to become fertile.

The whipping may have served several functions. It may have stirred up the blood. Or it may have been considered an expiation, a way of driving out sins and demons (as the Japanese expelled them at Setsubun by throwing beans (see Feb 5)). A similar custom is found at Carnival time in France and Germany: inflated pork bladders, said to contain the souls of the dead, are attached to sticks and used to beat members of the opposite sex.

When the Pope first tried to ban the Lupercalia in the 5th century, there was so much outrage that the papal residence was completely surrounded by the angry mob. He backed off and the festival was not officially banned again until the next century.
Rufus, Anneli, The World Holiday Book, Harper San Francisco 1994  Orloff, Alexander, Carnival: Myth and Cult, Perlinger 1981

Feb 15: Lantern Festival
The culmination of the New Year’s festivities occurs on the 15th day of the first Chinese lunar month, during the full moon, with the Feast of the Lanterns. The Chinese hang lanterns of all shapes and sizes from doorways. Popular designs include lanterns shaped like red carp and goldfish and sheep (because the word for sheep is the same as the word for good auspices). Also popular are multifaceted good-luck lanterns, designed to resemble a water caltrop, a root vegetable whose name in Chinese sounds the same as the word for good luck.

Sweet rice balls (yuan xiao), are the traditional food for this holiday. Traditionally they are made by dipping a kernel of flavored sugar repeatedly in rice flour and water to form successive layers. The balls are then boiled in water until the sugar center dissolves into syrup. The simpler version, usually served today, involves stuffing the sweet rice balls with red bean paste, sweet crushed sesame seeds or peanut paste. Making the rice balls is a family ritual and while they are being made, family members only mention good things, to insure luck for the coming year. Simonds, Nina, Chinese Seasons, Houghton Mifflin 1986