________________
186
RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS
days of January or beginning of February, and is not far from that time, when “quisque sibi sociam jam legit ales avem". What St. Valentine had to do with the choosing of mates has perplexed antiquaries; the interposition of Umá, in the selection of a bride or bridegroom, is more intelligible, as she may well be disposed to encourage that of which she set the example. The Romish Church, however, furnishes us with a somewhat nearer approximation in the festival of St. Agnes, which occurs on the 21st January, for on the eve of her day, many kinds of divination are practised by virgins to discover their future husbands. Although the festival is accounted for by a legend ** of the martyrdom and canonization of the virgin Agnes, it is not impossibly a relict of Paganism, like St. Valentine's day ***, which has been supposed to derive its origin from the Roman Lupercalia. These festivals may possibly, however, be merely an illunderstood record of ancient usages with regard to seasons of the year when marriages were most suitably solemnized f. This seems to be indicated by the Hindu worship of Varadá, although, even amongst them, the precise import of the festival is forgotten.
* [Brand's Popul. Antiqu. I, 34 -- 38. F. Nork's “Festkalender??. 1847, p. 116.)
** [Legenda Aurea, ed. Graesse, p. 113 ff. Fornsvensk Legendarium, ed. G. Stephens, p. 570 f.]
*** [Brand, I, 53-62. J. W. Wolf, Beiträge zur deutschen Mythologie, II, 102 f.]
+ [Festkalender aus Böhmen, Wien: 1861, p. 32. Calendrier Belge, I, 72.]
