Lupercalia

American  

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

noun

• Lupercalia,
  plural
• Lupercalias
  plural

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

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Lupercalia British  

/ ˌluːpɜːˈkeɪlɪə /

noun

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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Lupercalian
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Lupercalia
  plural
• Lupercalias
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of Lupercalia

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

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Example Sentences

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

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

In the beginning of its existence as a power only religious dances were practised, and many of these were of Etruscan origin, such as the Lupercalia, the Ambarvalia, &c.

From The Dance (by An Antiquary) Historic Illustrations of Dancing from 3300 B.C. to 1911 A.D. by Anonymous

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