What is the feast of luperacal?

Answer 1

There was no feast of Luperacal, it was Lupercalia.

Latin words and their endings can be confusing, so here is a brief explanation. (I hope) The god Luperus was an Italian rustic deity. He may have had something to do with a wolf as his name comes from the Latin word for wolf which is "Lupus". Now, the Lupercal was a cave or grotto on/in the Palatine hill in Rome that was sacred to the god. Every February the Romans celebrated the Lupercalia which was a celebration with prayer and sacrifice to honor this god. He also had morphed into a fertility god and it was customary for young men who took part in the ceremonies to run naked through the streets of Rome carrying a bloody strip of goat hide (a goat was used as the sacrificial animal to the god Luperus). Women would hold out their hands to be slapped with this strip of hide as it was said to promote fertility. So there are the three words, Luperus, Lupercal and Lupercalia, all connected, but meaning different things.