17 February, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh February! What a\nDark Past You Have!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Februarius Mensis, the\ncleansing month, so-called because of the festival Februa (see februum:\n“religious purification” and Februa, the Roman feast of purification\nheld on 15 February) reminds us of the pagan past from which Western (and\nespecially Christian) civilization emerged. (Thanks be to God!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
February takes its name from the\nLatin februa<\/em>, meaning “religious purification,” and so\nmeans “the month of purification,” or “the cleansing month,”\nreferring to the numerous festivals of that theme held then, especially the\nLupercalia. “Februation” would\nbe a proper word for defining the sacrificial religious cleansing process involving\nsacrifice of animals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Lupercalia, held on the\n15th, was a very ancient and very popular holiday that included rituals to\npurify the city of Rome\nand bring fertility to it. The celebrations were centered on the Palatine Hill,\nwhere the twins Romulus and Remus, the legendary\nfounders of Rome,\nwere said to have originally settled. On this day a goat (or goats) and a dog\nwere sacrificed. From the skin of the goats were made loincloths, which were\nthe only clothing worn by certain groups of young men who ran the bounds of the\ncity carrying whips, also made from the sacrificed goats’ skin; with these they\nhit the people they came across. This act was thought to not only drive away\nthe bad but also to draw in the good in the form of fertility for the people\nand the city in general, and it is said that women hoping to get pregnant or\nlooking for an easy time in childbirth would deliberately put themselves in\ntheir way so they could be hit. Plutarch, who lived in the 1st and 2nd\ncenturies CE, when the Lupercalia was in full swing, said that because the\nLupercalia was so heavily involved with purification the day was called februata<\/em> or dies\nfebruata<\/em> (“the day of purification”). (Incidentally in the\nsame passage he mentions a Greek ritual of purification called periskylakismos<\/em>,\nin which the person to be purified was rubbed all over with puppies, apparently\nbecause puppies absorb bad vibes.” (See http:\/\/www.thaliatook.com\/OGOD\/februtis.php<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, let us thank God for Christian civilization and let us, furthermore, strive to restore and preserve it. And let us begin by abandoning abortion.\u00a0\u00a0 “Blow ’em up!” as they say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 17 February, 2020 Oh February! What a Dark Past You Have! The Februarius Mensis, the cleansing month, so-called because of the festival Februa (see februum: “religious purification” and Februa, the Roman feast of purification held on 15 February) reminds us of the pagan past from which Western (and especially Christian) civilization emerged. (Thanks be to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48,50,51,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3195,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3193\/revisions\/3195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}