On 30 February and other curiosities of the shortest month

Wolf’s rebellious friends

Until February, The saying calls him unmanageable and crazy, for which one day the biggest snowfall of the year can fall and the next sunrise sunrise And almost summery. But moreover, the two adjectives quad very well with the origin of their name, which comes from the ‘February’s’, belts used in the tumultuous Roman Lupercal. In that former festival, the teenagers were chosen as ‘Lupercos’ or ‘Friends of the Wolf’ collected in a cave, lived with the sacrifice of a goat and received the blood of the animal in their forehead. Then it started from the cave A rough procession of more or less naked Lupercos who hit women in their hands and back with goat skin strips (The belts in question), in a purification ritual (known as ‘February’) and fertility. The thing that is used to unravel and lead to street loners, who have led to a traditional association with Valentine’s Day (which would be a kind of Christian reaction to so much dissolute) and with our carnival.

No birthday

The other adjective that usually applies the proverb this month that starts tomorrow, is that ‘short’, and that does not require large arguments. However, There was an opportunity that the short February corresponded to some of his older brothers and had thirty days. That unusual February, something like a double jump year, it happened in 1712 in Sweden, as part of the transition from the Julian calendar to Gregorian. Other countries chose to load the block of remaining dates from a cup, but the Swedish Empire preferred to cut more gradually, which eliminated more on February 29 (that extra day of every four years) from 1700. As some mistakes had made in that file, they decided to compensate them with the ‘Superfebre’ of 1712. In the end, they also jumped a large part of the calendar: in 1753 they passed directly from 17 February to 1 March. The Sweden born on February 30, 1712 could never celebrate a birthday on the correct date.

The time to wake the earth

February, winter month, It is also the moment when the threatening spring is announced, And his first days are well saturated with festivities related to the insinuation of rebirth. The Celts celebrated on February 1 The Imbolc, the ‘Sabbath’ of the Fire, Christian Christian as the day of Santa Brígida or as the Candelaria. On day 3, San Blas, the Spanish tradition reminds us that the stork of his migration should have returned to the warm countries of the South. And in the Basque country it is tradition to leave the 4th to celebrate the eve of Santa Águeda, Singing the ritual song in unison while rhythmically touches the ground with sticks or Makilas: According to some interpretations, that Bastoneo would be equivalent to a kind of pagan alarm to get the ground of his lethargy in the winter.

Oppressed of the calendar

But without a doubt is the most popular and universal saint of February Valentine, involuntary inspiration from the billionaire love activities on a fixed date. Apparently his party emerged as a Catholic alternative to the riot of the Lupercalen, but for decades he has been a special feature: The Second Vatican Council suppressed the good of Valentín of his liturgical calendar, in an attempt to clean the saint of imaginary figures or of doubtful existence. The truth is that the Valentine’s party eventually became a sort of third way, commercial and extremely profitable, as far from Christian piety as from pagan carnality, although there has been an attempt in recent years to bring it back to the religious fold: in 2014, Pope Francis wanted to celebrate on February 14 on February 14, meeting 10,000 pairs of couples.