OK, so it may be a holiday named for a Christian saint, but it's still a fun day to show the people you love (and lust after) just how much you care about them. This entire month has long been associated with love and romance, going back to the days of early Rome. Back then, February was the month in which people celebrated Lupercalia, a festival honoring the birth of Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of the city. Part of the fun included a "love lottery". Although contemporary historians have questioned the existence of such activities, it's still a fascinating legend.

After Christianity moved in, the Pope Gelasius did away with Lupercalia around 500 c.e., denouncing it as an immoral Pagan practice -- go figure. However, love and romance couldn't be stopped, and so the pope declared St. Valentine to be the patron saint of lovers. Learn more about the legend of St. Valentine, and how he became famous here: Valentine's Day.

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In addition to being the month of Valentine's Day and Imbolc, February is the time of the annual Roman festival of Lupercalia. Started back when Rome was just a bunch of shepherds in huts on a hillside, Lupercalia became a fertility celebration that welcomed Spring each year, much like Imbolc does for us today. The festivities included animal sacrifice, running through the streets, and being whipped with blood-soaked hides. All of this was topped off with a love lottery, in which young men drew the names of ladies out of a jar. You can read more about this early version of Valentine's Day here: Lupercalia.

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Wondering what you might have missed this week at About Pagan/Wiccan? Well, there's all kinds of new content, a bunch of blog posts, updates to older articles, and tons of new reader submissions! Here's your round-up of everything from the past week in About Pagan/Wiccan:

New and Updated Articles and Features

How to Make Pagan Prayer Beads
Making Your Own Magical Tools
Celebrating Ritual in Limited Space
How to Dispose of Magical Tools

Blog Posts

Depp Options Film Rights on WM3 Story
Ireland's Saintly Women
Love Magic and Folklore
Fear and Loathing in Buncombe County
The Religious Right and the Battle for Public Schools

New Reader Submissions

Energy and Prayer Requests

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Actor Johnny Depp is more than just a pretty face - he also happens to run his own production company, Infinitum Nihil, and he and production partner Christine Dembrowski have optioned film rights to the not-yet-published memoir of Damien Echols.

Depp has been a longtime supporter of Echols and the other two men known as the West Memphis Three, and a press release says he "will develop the narrative as a feature film with Echols and his wife Lorri Davis, who will be executive producers."

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