Lupercalia/Talk

This is a good entry, but the connection to the 40 day Christian penitential season of Lent is put too simplistically. Yes, the early Christians liked to 'domesticate' pagan festivals, but (1) since almost every day could have been a festival, if they wanted to have an observance they had a hard time AVOIDING Roman festivals, so the linkage is often false and (2) Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras, as we might as well call it, or Carnival, or whatever, is set not by the Lupercalia but by its relationship to Easter. That has to be made clear. I am also not at all sure that the penitential season was invented in the city of Rome by Pope Gelasius, but that research can come later. --MichaelTinkler

Absolutely. I agree with you completely. What I see as evidence of the the "linkage" is the way pagan symbols were adopted into Christian practice, so that many modern Christian festivals, holy days, etc., to this day carry forward many pagan images, reinterpreted or merged (e.g., the Christmas tree, Easter eggs). It is probably non-npov to imply there was an intentional "corruption" of the pagan festivals; that probably happened by infrequently. It's just part of human nature for the new forms to incorporate the old.

I'm still looking for a good source regarding Gelasius. --Dmerrill