Lupercalia

American

[loo-per-key-lee-uh, ‑-keyl-yuh] / ˌlu pərˈkeɪ li ə, ‑ˈkeɪl yə /

noun

a festival held in ancient Rome on the 15th of February to promote fertility and ward off disasters.

Lupercalia British

/ ˌluːpɜːˈkeɪlɪə /

noun

an ancient Roman festival of fertility, celebrated annually on Feb 15 See also Saint Valentine's Day

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Lupercalian

adjective

Inflected Forms

noun

Etymology

Origin of Lupercalia

Latin, from Lupercālis belonging to Lupercus, a Roman god of the flocks

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Historians believe that Valentine's Day is rooted in the Roman love and fertility festival, Lupercalia, and was a move by Gelasius I to Christianise pagan traditions.

From BBC • Apr. 28, 2025

Lewis also shared with Fox News the story of the pagan celebration Lupercalia.

From Fox News • Feb. 14, 2020

Apparently, they’re celebrating Lupercalia, though their frolic looks a lot more like heavy metal night on the Westside piers.

From New York Times • Mar. 29, 2019

The holiday itself dates back many centuries before then; it is apparently another pagan holiday that Christians attempted to co-opt, by transforming the Roman fertility celebration Lupercalia into St. Valentine’s Day.

From Slate • Feb. 14, 2019

The boys used to go through the streets, at the Lupercalia flogging themselves.

From The Cloister and the Hearth by Reade, Charles

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023