Roman Religion: Lemuralia or Happy Halloween?

Author: Hatch, M., (2008), “Happy Halloween”, first published in The Imperial Courier, Volume 3, Issue 10, THE RMRS, pp. 2-3.

It’s that time of the year - Lemuralia, a time for performing rites to exorcise the malevolent and fearful ghosts of the dead from our homes. Time, then, for the unwholesome spectres of the restless dead, the lemures, to be propitiated with offerings of beans and for the Vestals to prepare sacred mola salsa (“salt cake”) from the first ears of wheat of the season.

In the Julian calendar the three days of the feast of Lemuralia were May 9th, 11th, and 13th. The origin myth of this ancient festival has it that it was instituted by Romulus to appease the spirit of Remus (Ovid, Fasti, 5.421 ff; see insert opposite). According to Ovid, who derives Lemuria from a supposed Remuria [1], it was the custom for the head of the household to appease or expel the evil spirits by walking barefoot and throwing black beans over the shoulder at midnight. While doing so, the incantation: “With these beans I redeem myself and mine” was repeated nine times. Similarly, nine times the household would then clash bronze pots while repeating: “Ghosts of my fathers and ancestors, be gone!” [2]. In the Roman mind, this annual exorcism of the noxious spirits of the dead made the whole month of May unlucky for marriages and gave rise to the proverb mense Maio malae nubent (“They wed ill who wed in May”).

On the culminating day of Lemuralia, May 13th, in AD 609 (or possibly AD 610 as seemingly the recording of the day was more significant than the year), Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs - the feast of that dedicatio Sanctae Mariae ad Martyres has been celebrated at Rome ever since. Thus, it seems, the ancient Lemuralia, a popular festival, was replaced by the Christian feast of All Saints' Day to which followers of the new faith could still identify. In the eighth century AD, as the popular observance of the Lemuralia had faded over time, the feast of All Saints was shifted to the November 1st, ironically now coinciding with the similar, much older propitiation of the spirits at Samhain. It was left to Pope Gregory III (AD 731 - AD 741) to fix the anniversary [3] by consecrating a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints.

In the ninth century AD, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day (or as it was once known “All Hallows' Day”) is now considered to occur one day after All Hallows' Even (our “Halloween”), the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on October 31st. The Vigil of All Saints was suppressed in 1955 but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar. Despite the historical precedence, the current official Roman Catholic position is that the Roman festival of Lemuralia was not connected with the origin of All Saints.

Armed with this knowledge, now you can challenge those pesky “Trick or Treat-ers” on exactly what they are doing. Happy Halloween!

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Endnotes:

1. Modern linguists dismiss this connection but find the etymology of lemures obscure. George Thaniel noted (in “Lemures and Larvae” The American Journal of Philology 94.2 [Summer 1973, pp. 182-187] p 182) that: “The ordinary appellation for the dead in late Republican and early Imperial times was Manes or Di Manes, although frequent use was also made of such terms as umbrae, immagines, species and others.” He notes the first appearance of lemures in Horace, Epistles ii.2.209. ▲

2. Manes exite paterni! is the formula given by Ovid (Fasti, V.443); scholars argue over how accurate Ovid was in this instance. ▲

3. Dr. Richard P. Bucher (Lutheran), ‘The Meaning and Origin of All Saints Day’. The Feast did not become established in the Western Church, however, until the Roman bishop Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon at Rome to Christian usage as a church on May 13, AD 609 (or AD 610). The Feast was observed annually on this date until the time of Bishop of Rome, Gregory III (d. 741) when its observance was shifted to November 1st, since on this date Gregory dedicated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter. ▲