*In Roman religion, the Feast of the Lemures, called the
Lemuraliai, was a feast during which the ancient Romans
performed rites to exorcise the malevolent and fearsome
ghosts of the dead from their homes. The unwholesome and
malevolent specters of the restless dead (lemures) were
propitiated with offerings of beans.

In the Julian calendar the three days of the feast were
9, 11, and 13 May. The myth of origin of this ancient
festival was that it had been instituted by Romulus to
appease the spirit of Remus (Ovid, Fasti, verse 473ff.).
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 responsible for getting up at midnight
and walking around the house with bare feet throwing out
black beans and repeating the incantation, "With these
beans I redeem me and mine" nine times. The household would
then clash bronze pots while repeating, "Ghosts of my fathers
and ancestors, be gone!" nine times.

"The early church initially "Christianized" the Lemuralia by
establishing the Feast of All Saints in May.
By the 8th century, the popular observance
of the Lemuralia had faded and the feast of All Saints was
shifted to November 1, to coincide with the similar Celtic propitiation
of the spirits at Samhain."

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