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Lemuria (festival)

For other uses, seeLemuria (disambiguation).

Lemuralia redirects here. For the EP by Patrick Wolf,

seeLemuralia (EP).

TheLemuraliaorLemuriawas a feast in thereligion of

ancient Romeduring which theRomansperformedrites

toexorcisethe malevolent and fearful ghosts of the dead

from their homes. The unwholesome spectres of the rest-

less dead, the lemuresor larvae[1] were propitiated with

offerings ofbeans. On those days, theVestalswould pre-

pare sacredmola salsa, a salted flour cake, from the firstears ofwheatof the season.

In theJulian calendarthe three days of the feast were 9,

11, and 13 May. Theorigin mythof this ancient festival,

according toOvid, who derivesLemuriafrom a supposed

Remuria[2] was that it had been instituted by Romulus

to appease the spirit of Remus (Ovid, Fasti, V.421ff;

Porphyrius). Ovid notes that at this festival it was the

custom to appease or expel the evil spirits by walking

barefoot and throwing black beans over the shoulder at

night. It was the head of the household who was respon-

sible for getting up at midnight and walking around the

house with bare feet throwing out black beans and re-peating the incantation, I send these; with these beans I

redeem me and mine (Haec ego mitto; his redimo meque

meosque fabis.) nine times. The household would then

clash bronze pots while repeating, Ghosts of my fathers

and ancestors, be gone!"[3] nine times.

Because of this annualexorcismof the noxious spirits of

the dead, the whole month of May was rendered unlucky

for marriages, whence the proverb Mense Maio malae

nubent(They wed ill who wed in May).

On what had been the culminating day of theLemuralia,

May 13 in 609 or 610 the day being recorded as more

significant than the year, Pope Boniface IV conse-

crated the Pantheon at Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all

the martyrs, and the feastof thatdedicatio Sanctae Mariae

ad Martyreshas been celebrated at Rome ever since. Ac-

cording to cultural historians,[4] this ancientcustom was

Christianizedin the feast ofAll Saints Day, established

in Rome first on May 13, in order to de-paganize the Ro-

man Lemuria,[5] while others see a link to the May 13

date inSaint Ephrem's celebration of All Saints on that

day in the 4th century.[6]

1 See also

All Saints Day

Feralia

Halloween

Lemures

Pantheon, Rome

Parentalia

Setsubun

2 Notes

[1] they do not occur in epitaphs or higher poetry, George

Thaniel noted (in Lemures and Larvae The American

Journal of Philology94.2 [Summer 1973, pp. 182-187] p

182) remarking The ordinary appellation for the dead in

late Republican and early Imperial times wasManesorDi

Manes, although frequent use was also made of such terms

as umbrae, immagines, speciesand others. He notes thefirst appearance oflemuresinHorace,Epistlesii.2.209.

[2] Modern linguists dismiss this connection but find the ety-

mology oflemuresobscure.

[3] Manes exite paterni! is the formula given by Ovid (Fasti

V.443); scholars argue over how accurate Ovid was in this

instance.

[4] See for example Days of the Dead in Christian Roy, ed.

Traditional festivals: a multicultural encyclopedia, 2005,

vol. 2: s.v. All Saints Day and Halloween": "...yet May

13 had also happened to be the last day of the Roman

Lemuria for lost souls"; Richard P. Taylor, Death and

the Afterlife: a cultural encyclopedia 200, p. 163: Pope

Boniface IV (608-615) replaced Lemuria with All Saints

Day on 13 May.

[5] An attempt to connect the cultus of All Saints and All

Souls Day with the RomanParentalia, observed however

in February, is sometimes made: e.g. Gordon J. Laing,

Survivals of Roman Religion (Boston 1931) p. 84: "...the

thirteenth of May, which was one of the days of the Ro-

man festival of the dead, the Lemuria. Whether there is

any connection between these dates or not, the rites of All

Saints Day are a survival not of the Lemuria but of the

Parentalia.

[6] Butlers Lives of Saints, Volume 4, Nov. 1, citing in turnEphraem Syrus, Carmina Nisibena, ed. Bicknell, pp. 23,

89

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http://books.google.com/books?id=4EIYAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=carmina+nisibena&hl=en&ei=ugPgTMnmGMSp8Aatv5SzDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/books?id=4EIYAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=carmina+nisibena&hl=en&ei=ugPgTMnmGMSp8Aatv5SzDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alban_Butlerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parentaliahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horacehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsubunhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parentaliahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Romehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemureshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloweenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feraliahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Dayhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Ephremhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints%2527_Dayhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianizationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianizationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Romehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_IVhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorcismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoothttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyry_(philosopher)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_and_Remushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_and_Remushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovidhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_mythhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendarhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheathttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mola_salsahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestal_Virginhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemureshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorcismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Romehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_ancient_Romehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_ancient_Romehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuralia_(EP)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuria_(disambiguation)

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2 3 SOURCES

3 Sources

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/

Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Lemuralia.html

Smith, William, 1875. Dictionary of Greek and

Roman Antiquities.

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Lemuralia.htmlhttp://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Lemuralia.html

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