February is a month sacred to the gods Mars (as Quirinus, or Romulus) and Juno, the wife of Jupiter.Juno (Hera, was the mother of Mars. Mars was known to the Greeks as Ares, the god of war. The war god was wild and ungovernable, a god who glorified in strife for its own sake and revelled in slaughter. He was thought to gloat over the death and destruction he caused. He was typically accompanied by his two sons Deimos (Fear or Terror) and Phobos (Dismay or Flight from Fear). The Romans held a milder, more honorable view of Mars, honoring him as the son of Zeus and the father of Romulus.
     It is also a month in which particular reverence was shown to the spirits of deceased ancestors. In a familiar cultural dichotomy in which both death and life were celebrated, this was a month devoted to fertility, both of men and women, and of the land. Many of the rites had vestiges of agricultural overtones. It may be more than coincidence that the dead, who were either buried or considered to be in the "underworld", and the fruits of agriculture, both relate to the earth.
      On the kalends of every month interest payments were due. The interest rate in Rome was normally 1/2% (per month).
      In Greece, on this day and the next, they celebrated the Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries. Triptolemus, who had been cured of a childhood illness by Ceres, was taken around the world on a chariot and shown the wonders of nature. When he returned home to Eleusis he built a magnificent temple to Ceres and established the worship of the goddess. These rites, the Eleusinian Mysteries, surpassed all other Greek religious celebrations in their solemnity and splendor.