Profs & Pints DC: The Pagan Roots of Late Winter Holidays

Profs and Pints DC presents: “The Pagan Roots of Late Winter Holidays,” a look at how ancient fertility rituals, Roman myths, and early challenges to Christianity gave us Valentine’s Day and Mardi Gras, with Larissa “Kat” Tracy, scholar of medieval literature, author of several books on the Middle Ages, and visiting assistant teaching professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

On the surface, at least, the holidays we celebrate near the transition of winter into spring have confounding contradictions. The beheading of the pious Saint Valentine is commemorated with lovemaking. Fat Tuesday’s debauchery arose as a way for Catholics to brace for the abstinence of Lent.

It all makes more sense, however, when we look back to seasonal celebrations in ancient Rome and Ireland, and account for Christianity’s knack for absorbing and incorporating earlier traditions and mixing them with a host of religious sentiments.

Coming to DC’s…