“The Roman religious calendar reflected Rome’s hospitality to the cults and deities of conquered territories–including the Greeks. Originally Roman religious festivals were few in number. Some of the oldest survived to the very end of the pagan empire, preserving the memory of the fertility and propitiatory rites of a primitive agricultural people. New festivals were introduced, however, to mark the naturalization of new gods. So many festivals were adopted eventually that the work days on the calendar were outnumbered. The Lupercalia and Equiria were two important Roman religious festivals celebrated in February and March.

The Lupercalia was an ancient festival originally honoring Lupercus, a pastoral god of the Italians. The festival was celebrated on February 15 at the cave of the Lupercal on the Palatine Hill, where the legendary founders of Rome, the twins Romulus and Remus, were supposed to have been nursed by a wolf. Among the Roman legends connected with them is that of Faustulus, a shepherd who was supposed to have discovered the twins in the wolf’s den and to have taken them to his home, in which they were brought up by his wife, Acca Larentia.

The Equiria is a festival in honor of Mars, was celebrated on February 27 and March 14, traditionally the time of year when new military campaigns were prepared. Horse races in the Campus Martius notably marked the celebration.

In Greek and Roman mythology, Bacchus is the god of wine, identified with Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, and Liber, the Roman god of wine. The son of Zeus (Jupiter), Bacchus is usually characterized in two ways. The first is that of the god of vegetation, specifically of the fruit of the trees, who is often represented on Attic vases with a drinking horn and vine branches. As Bacchus came to be the popular national Greek god of wine and cheer, wine miracles were reputedly performed at his festivals. The second characterization of the god, that of a deity whose mysteries inspired ecstatic, orgiastic devotion, is exemplified by the Maenads, or Bacchantes. This group of female devotees left their homes to roam the wilderness in ecstatic devotion to the god. They wore fawn skins and were believed to possess occult powers.

The name Bacchus came into use in ancient Greece during the 5th century B.C. It refers to the loud cries with which he was worshiped at the Bacchanalia, frenetic celebrations in his honor. These events, which supposedly originated in spring nature festivals, became occasions for licentiousness and intoxication, at which the celebrants danced, drank, and generally debauched themselves. The Bacchanalia became more and more extreme and were prohibited by the Roman Senate in 186 B.C. In the first century A.D., however, the Dionysiac mysteries were still popular, as evidenced by representations of them found on Greek sarcophagi.” via Mardi Gras pagan origins – Google Search.