Happy Lupercalia (February 15)

From Wikipedia:

"Lupercalia was a pastoral festival of Ancient Rome observed annually on February 15 to purify the city, promoting health and fertility. Lupercalia was also known as dies Februatus, after the purification instruments called februa, the basis for the month named Februarius

The festival was originally known as Februa "Purifications" or "Purgings" after the februum which was used on the day. It was also known as Februatus and gave its name variously, as epithet to Juno Februalis, Februlis, or Februata in her role as patron deity of that month; to a supposed purification deity called Februus; and to February (mensis Februarius), the month during which the festival occurred. Ovid connects februare to an Etruscan word for "purging". Some sources[who?] connect the Latin word for fever (febris) with the same idea of purification or purging, due to the "sweating out" commonly associated with fevers.

The name Lupercalia was believed in antiquity to evince some connection with the Ancient Greek festival of the Arcadian Lykaia, a wolf festival (Greek: λύκος, lýkos; Latin: lupus), and the worship of Lycaean Pan, assumed to be a Greek equivalent to Faunus"

At the Lupercal altar, a male goat (or goats) and a dog were sacrificed by one or another of the Luperci, under the supervision of the Flamen dialis, Jupiter's chief priest.An offering was also made of salted mealcakes, prepared by the Vestal Virgins. After the blood sacrifice, two Luperci approached the altar. Their foreheads were anointed with blood from the sacrificial knife, then wiped clean with wool soaked in milk, after which they were expected to laugh.

The sacrificial feast followed, after which the Luperci cut thongs (known as februa) from the flayed skin of the animal,] and ran with these, naked or near-naked, along the old Palatine boundary, in an anticlockwise direction around the hill. In Plutarch's description of the Lupercalia, written during the early Empire,

...many of the noble youths and of the magistrates run up and down through the city naked, for sport and laughter striking those they meet with shaggy thongs. And many women of rank also purposely get in their way, and like children at school present their hands to be struck, believing that the pregnant will thus be helped in delivery, and the barren to pregnancy."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia

Sad for the poor dog and goats.
And I have to wonder why people would want to run around Rome naked in the middle of February.

It is so lovely to get another heart! Thank you!

Another heart!!!

I am flabbergasted and delighted!

Thank you, dear donor!

Awwwwwwwww, another heart ❤️

Thank you so very much

❤️

Map of where Russian troops are positioned outside Ukraine

Map of Ukraine's mineral resources

Another reason Putin wants to grab Ukraine




Geology of Ukraine
https://eng.minerals-ua.info/golovna/metalichni-korisni-kopalini/

First, he was the Slobfather

now, he's the Clogfather

Another reason Russia wants Ukraine

Official Website of the International Trade Administration
Energy Resource Guide - Ukraine - Oil and Gas

Ukraine has tremendous natural resources for meeting domestic oil and gas production needs, with estimates of approximately 900 billion cubic meters of proven reserves of natural gas. In Europe, Ukraine ranks second for gas reserves. Three Ukrainian regions contain hydrocarbons resources: the Dnipro-Donetsk basin, the Carpathian region in western Ukraine, and the Black Sea and Crimea region in the south. The Dnipro-Donetsk basin is a major oil and gas producing region accounting for 90 percent of all current Ukrainian production. The structure of hydrocarbons production in Ukraine is as follows: natural gas 89 percent, oil 7.9 percent, and gas condensate 3.1 percent. The primary source of hydrocarbons in Ukraine is natural gas, though the most lucrative gas reserves are located below 5,000 meters.

https://www.trade.gov/energy-resource-guide-ukraine-oil-and-gas

Oil is the root of much evil

Bless your heart! Thank you so much for the heart!

❤️ Some heart quotes, as a thank you for the hearts! ❤️

❤️ “Nothing makes a person happier than having a happy heart.” — Roy T. Bennett

❤️ “If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.” — Maya Angelou

❤️ “The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.” — Rumi

❤️ "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

❤️ "The heart is the perfection of the whole organism. Therefore the principles of the power of perception and the soul’s ability to nourish itself must lie in the heart." -- Aristotle

❤️ "But my heart it is brighter than all of the many Stars in the sky." -- Edgar A. Poe

❤️ "A good heart is worth gold, and more than." -- William Shakespeare