Water Season

It’s now February, the short, little month of gloomy, winter weather. It doesn’t feel like a festive season, but in actuality, it has hosted holidays for thousands of years. The word February comes from the Latin word februum which means “the act of purification.” (The word “fever” also comes from februum/febris, as the sweating that comes with fever was considered purgative of the illness.) Februus was also the name of the ancient Roman/Etruscan god of the underworld and atonement.  

In Rome, February was the month for purification and preparation for the coming spring and included several festivals or rites around family, the home, and purification. Most of the month falls under the sign of Aquarius, the water-bearer, again making the connection between the month and purification. Throughout the month, Romans honored ancestors and family, prayed for protection, and prepared the home and land for the coming spring and sowing season. For nine days, temples would be closed and no official business was done as people were expected to be focus on this domestic purification. People would sprinkle water around their homes and around the city.

The biggest purification festival of Lupercalia was observed on February 15. Lupercalia gets its name from the cave in which the wolf (Lupa) nursed Rome’s founders Romulus and Remus. The festival focuses on purification of the city in order to promote health and fertility. The rituals included animal sacrifices and using the flayed skin to create strips (called februa). Men then ran around the old Palatine boundary, naked or nearly naked, striking onlookers with the februa.

As the empire Christianized, Lupercalia was one of the longest continued pagan festivals. There is documentation of it on a calendar from 354 alongside Christian holidays. In 495, Pope Gelasius I condemned those still practicing it; the Roman Senate protested that the annual purification protected the city, to which the pope reported replied, “If you assert that this rite has salutary force, celebrate it yourselves in the ancestral fashion; run nude yourselves that you may properly carry out the mockery.”

Which brings us to Christian festivals of purification. In ancient Jewish culture, after a woman gave birth she was ritually unclean for 40 days (80 if it was a girl). That time was spent recovering from childbirth, bonding with the baby, and generally not participating in social/religious life. After the 40 days, the mother would to through a mikvah, the waters of purification, and the child would be officially presented. Thus, 40 days after Christmas, on February 2, we celebrate the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Presentation of the Lord. And although most of us packed up decorations weeks earlier, this is considered the conclusion of the Christmas season. Also called Candlemas (because at his presentation, Jesus is recognized as the Messiah “to bring light to the nations” by Simeon), this festival is one of the oldest holidays celebrated by Christians. It was observed as early as late fourth century, almost as soon as December 25 was fixed as the day of Christmas (354).

While many try to tie Candlemas to just Christianized Lupercalia, Lupercalia was primarily a major holiday in the city of Rome while Candlemas grew out of Jerusalem. Lupercalia would have only been celebrated by Roman officials stationed there, if at all, and the Christians would have been of Jewish decent, thus mindful of the 40-day mikvah following childbirth. Plus, there’s no circling the city naked in Candlemas celebrations.

Most years (though not this one), the season Lent begins in February. Christians clean out their cabinets of oil, meat, and other items by Fat Tuesday in preparation for the penitential and fasting season. Lent calls us to personally sacrifice and purify ourselves to prepare for the coming Resurrection and Easter season.

In both ancient times and now, February seems to call us be mindful of the need of purification, to actively remove the excess that contaminates us. This is an important act; we desire to be worthy; we strive to be clean. It is wintery and gloomy, and we are holed up inside, but we are not inactive. We are washing, preparing, anticipating the coming spring.