Festival of Lemuria

Today is my birthday and I was very pleased to learn that May 11th was one of the three days Romans celebrated the festival of Lemuria. Ok, you're saying, they used the Julian calendar, just how old are you? For the sake of my fantasy world let's ignore the whole Julian/Gregorian thing and focus on May 11th.

Lemuria was when Romans chased out malevolent ancestral spirits from their homes. It took place on May 9th, 11th, and 13th. Apparently even numbers were considered unlucky. The cleansing took place at midnight and the head of the household threw black beans over his shoulder as he walked from room to room. Who know spirits were attracted to black beans? It was supposed to give them sustenance on their journey the heck away from here. At the end of the tour, which needed to be repeated nine times,  he would wash his hands and repeat the phrase "Ghosts of my fathers, be gone" nine times. During the three day festival, marriages were prohibited. On the final day, a merchants' festival was held to ensure prosperity for the year. I think that's like Hallmark getting into the act on every holiday. If you want to read a concise article explaining Lemuria properly click here.

I think I must have been guided by my ancestral spirits having been born on May 11th because I keep an ancestral shrine up all year long. You can read more about that here. I like to keep everyone happy so there is no need to chase anyone out.  Just in case, I'll put a dish of black beans on the table tonight.