Lupercalia

Lupercalia was an ancient Italian fertility festival that took place each year on the Ides of February (the 13th or 15th depending). By the time that the Romans began keeping written records, not much was remembered about the actual origins of the holiday. Most of our sources about the Lupercalia are from upper class Romans (Cicero) who found the rituals outdated and obscene or by Christian authors trying to debase pagan traditions.

 The Lupercalia began with a sacrifice of a goat and a dog by the Lupercali (Priests who served the god Lupercus), at the Lupercal ( the supposed cave where Romulus and Remus were nursed by the she-wolf). **Lupus is the Latin word for wolf**. Then the blood from the sacrifice was smeared over two Roman Patrician young men, who were stripped naked except for a loin cloth. These two honorary Lupercali as they were called, were given strips of leather which they used as whips to strike women and girls of a child-bearing age. The women and girls lined up for the 'beating' because they believed that to be struck by the februa (the leather whips) ensured fertility in the upcoming year.

By the late republic and early empire, the Lupercalia had denegrated into an excuse for a wild, drunken party.

For more information check out his translation from Ovid's Fasti where he describes the festival (look under February 15th- the Lupercalia)

http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkTwo.htm#_Toc69367692