Lemuria (thing)

Lemuria is not just a utopian occult fantasy world.

It's also an ancient Roman festival of the dead.

Lemuria, celebrated by ancient Romans in early to mid-May, lasts a week and a day. It is similar in scope to other festivals of the dead, such as:

• The Day of the Dead (Mexico)
• O-Bon (Japanese)
• Feast of the Hungry Ghosts (Chinese)
• All Hallow's Eve, aka Samhain, aka Halloween

Lemuria

Romans believed that on May 9th, May 11th, and May 13th, the spirits of the neglected, angry or improperly buried would rise and maim or kill the living. To be on the safe side, Romans began their observations on the 7th, and continued until the 15th. This time period is known as the Lemures.

Since this month was devoted in large to rituals for the dead, it was considered unlucky to schedule happy events such as weddings during this time. Such events were put off until June, when the spirits were believed to be more benign.

Scheduled Events Include:

Temples, businesses, and public houses were closed during Lemuria, while Romans took to walking their streets and gardens beating drums to frighten the malevolent spirits back to their graves. Offerings were made at the Tiber River, perhaps symbolic of the river that divided the mortal world and the Underworld.

Cemeteries and crypts also received special attention during Lemuria. Those who cared for the graves of strangers were thought to be blessed with extra luck for the coming year.

The offerings made during Lemuria, as in Samhain and the older All Hallow's Eve traditions, are primarily good food. There is also a magical bean ritual. This food is designed to bribe the restless spirits, called lemure or larvae, from harming the living in a household.

Lemures and Larvae

Lemures came in several forms:

• Evil spirits which had never been human, more like demons than ghosts.

• Spirits of evil people who like to stick around this mortal coil in order to keep doing bad things to good people.

• Spirits of people improperly buried, killed in a violent or untimely fashion, or who had no living descendants to care for their graves and make appropriate appeasements and offerings.

However, all Lemures had certain things in common. They:

• assumed horrifying shapes
• exercised great cruelty on human beings
• and were all ravenously hungry

The worst of the Lemures were believed to feed on human flesh or blood.

Beans, Beans, the Magical Lemure-Banishing Fruit:

On the final night of Lemuria, the male head of each household performed the following ritual to insure the safety of his family and property:

Try This at Home!

1. Bathe and take extra care to purify hands, washing them ritually three times.
2. Put some black beans in your mouth, and walk clockwise through the house while barefoot. Throw more beans over your shoulder, and recite prayers. No, you may not spit the beans out to pray. That's the tricky part.
3. The householder must make the Sign of the Horns (no, I am NOT making this up) throughout the ritual. For those of you who missed out on Motley Crue 101, this means holding the pinky and forefinger up, with the thumb crossed over the middle and ring fingers. This gesture was reputed to protect the householder from venturesome ghosts.
4. The prayers and the walk through the house should be repeated nine times, while never looking behind yourself or into any mirrors.

After the prayers and scattering of the beans (which would be picked up by any stray and hungry ghosts), the householder was required to wash his hands again before the entire family joined in the crashing of cymbals and beating of drums to encourage the Lemures to leave and return to their graves.

Happy Lemuria!