Many holidays today have old roots, some replacing a similar holiday. Valentine’s Day is among them, tracing it’s origins to a holiday of Roman times, the Lupercalia.I heard about a Lupercalia festival at the Roma area in Second Life, and headed over on Sunday February 21. It was a bit late in the celebration, but arrived just in time to see the big party: the Lupercalia Grand Feast. There was a table full of foods from the era, such as the stuffed quail, the oysters as an aphrodisiac food, and more. But the real action was on the dance floor. Some were dressed in togas. Others were in costumed for the party theme: famous couples. One couple tried both, going as Marc Anthony and Cleopatra. For those who couldn’t find a date, the contest rules allowed people to “enter as one half of a couple.”The dancers were a mix of human, furred and a couple tinies, with a couple robot guards in armor overlooking the event. Although some were dressed to the period, the music was very much modern. There was also a trivia contest, with more modern themes than one would expect. And between the trivia a few jokes cracked, notably when one normal human made the mistake of clicking on the tiny dance ball, scrunching himself up.The festival had other events earlier and the previous day. On Saturday February 20th was a love poetry reading, a wolf hunt with a 1000 Linden prize, and the main event. The start of the festival was marked by the recreation of the Roman ritual for Faunua Lupercus, the Roman god of wild things, and Lupa, the female wolf that according to legend nursed Rome’s founding fathers, Romulas and Remus. After the ritual was the Running of the Luperci “half-naked youths who bless the young ladies of the city” by flogging them (lightly) with goatskins soaked in milk, in the belief the women would be blessed with fertility in both body and spirit.Sunday the 21st had the Equirria Legion receiving it’s blessing from Venus, whom then went to the Baths of Caracalla to hold court “for those who seek council about matters of love and romance.” Following that, Cupid hosted an archery contest, with prizes given to the top three archers.“It's gone very well.” Torin Golding, the Prefect of Roma told SL Newspaper, ”Lupercalia is one of our most popular festivals. We hold a weekend of festival events every month. Angelia Rees and the ROMA Collegium of Priests in ROMA organize all of the festivals. Usually they're either the second or third weekend of the month.”Torin commented Roma was not really a roleplay sim, although some roleplaying does take place there, “We're mainly a social sim. ROMA has a great Citizenry. Both of people who rent land here in our residential land, and others who are regulars. We have a lot of social groups people join. And the festivals like this one give us all an excuse to come together and socialize around the events.” According to Torin, Roma has been doing the Lupercalia since 2007. Their other big holidays, are, “Saturnalia definitely, (in) December, and the festivals around October, which (has) both our anniversary festivals (we opened ROMA in October 2006) and Halloween.”Melanippe Karas also had a few words, “I'm (the) unofficial calendar minder for festivals. ... The archery went well, even if we didn't seem to have anybody outside Roma this time. The wolf hunt went well too ... ” She also mentioned Roma had military drills every Friday at 1 PM.The Grand Feast went on for a few hours, and the winning couple walked away with 1000 Lindens. Everyone soon parted ways, the citizens of Roma looking forward to the next festival.Bixyl Shuftan
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