HAPPY LEMURIA! (NO IT’S NOT ABOUT LEMURS)
originally posted on Facebook May 11, 2025
Happy Mothers Day, everyone! And Happy Halloween, too!
(Say what …?)
Of course, it’s not *really* Halloween, but it *is* the Lemuria. This Roman religious festival is similar to the October 31st celebration of yore. Malign spirits were believed to roam not just the earth but the home. Given their proximity to everyday life, propitiating them was critical.
Bronze oil lamps recovered from Pompeii. The figures on left and right represent the home’s lares. The figure in the center is the goddess Fortuna. From the Capitoline Museum in Rome.
Romans believed that the dead become spirits; divinities of a sort, though the weakest of the pantheon. Those which inhabited the home were called the Lares (LAH-rehs). These could include the family’s ancestors but also, it seems, any who had died and whose soul wandered into someone’s home.
Despite their low rank, the phantoms were among Rome’s most important deities. Every home had a shrine to them where one offered trinkets, but also burnt offerings. If not properly honored, the spirits could have a baleful effect on the family, stoking arguments between members, insubordination among slaves, and causing accidents or even death.
Beyond being prone to anger, the ghosts were hungry. When food fell on the floor, a family member burnt it at the home shrine. The floor was the domain of the wraiths, and any edibles crossing that plane belonged to them. Incapable of eating solid food, the famished ghosts relied on fire to impart the food’s essence and, presumably, flavor. During Lemuria, food offerings were burnt, whether having touched the floor or not.
As part of their observations, a family might make representations of each member of the household: dolls for the free, balls for the enslaved. The spirits would spare the living, opting instead to take the surrogates. As the Oxford Classical Dictionary states, “This is a quite reasonable precaution against ghosts.” Obviously.
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Sure, the comparison with Halloween is minor, but both events concern phantasmic appeasement. Don’t worry if you can’t think about Lemuria today. Oddly, Romans observed it on 3 non-consecutive days in May. While you missed it on the 9th, today - the 11th - is a proper time for reflection. And if your weekend is too busy, you can muse about it on Tuesday the 13th.
It’s a coincidence that the forgotten Roman festival shares a date with Mothers Day this year. It’s barely sensible to compare the two observances, but you can certainly contrast them. Whereas Lemuria was about fear, Mothers Day is about a mom’s fearless love for her children. Where the ghosts could cause harm, moms protect us from harm. And while moms aren’t divine, they are powered by a spark of the divine. This makes them infinitely more important and praiseworthy than a bunch of ghosts relegated to oblivion.
But most importantly, call your mom today and tell her how much you love her. Or, if like me, you need to shout up to her in heaven, loose your love and light upon the firmament. This form of celestial communication, the Romans would surely understand.
