Lupercalia

American

[loo-per-kay-lee-uh, -kayl-yuh] / ˌlu pərˈkeɪ li ə, -ˈkeɪl jə /

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

Nouns

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.

See Examples For:

Lupercalia

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

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 links to Lupercalia, though, don’t hold up well to investigation.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 8, 2019

The plebs actually hailed Caesar as “rex,” and at the feast of the Lupercalia in February, 44 B. C.,

From A History of Rome to 565 A. D. by Arthur Edward Romilly Boak

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