What is "ema"

n. A wooden plaque bearing a prayer or wish, left hanging at a Shinto shrine.

Ema may refer to:

• Ema (Shinto), wooden plaques with prayers or wishes at Shintō shrines and Buddhist temples
• Kemak people, also called Ema, an ethnic group in Timor
• Ema, the local name of the greater rhea (Rhea americana) in Brazil

EMA may refer to:

In medicine:

• Endomysial autoantibodies (EmA), a test for Coeliac Disease
• Epithelial membrane antigen, a cell surface protein also known as MUC1

In music:

• MTV Europe Music Awards, a set of music awards
• EMA (Slovenia), Slovenian Eurovision Song Contest selection
• Erika M. Anderson a singer/songwriter from America
• Entertainment Monitoring Africa, previously known as Mediaguide South Africa

In organizations:

• Eastern Military Academy, a defunct academy founded in 1944 in Connecticut
• Egmont Manga & Anime, a German manga publishing company
• Electronic Money Association, a trade body representing electronic money issuers in Europe
• Emergency Management Australia, an Australian Federal Government Agency
• Emmet Monument Association, a mid-nineteenth century New York group
• Energy Market Authority, a regulatory body in Singapore
• Engineers' and Managers' Association, a former British trade union
• Entertainment Merchants Association, an international trade association
• Environmental Media Association, the organization awarding the Environmental Media Awards
• Environmental Media Awards, for the best television episode or film with an environmental message
• Escuela Mexicana Americana
• Ethiopian Mapping Authority
• Ethiopian Motor Association, a member of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
• European Academy of Music Theatre
• European Mahjong Association
• European Medicines Agency, a European agency for the evaluation of medicinal products
• Euro-Mediterranean Association for Cooperation and Development, a nonprofit organization based in Hamburg, Germany

In science and technology:

• Anti-Endomysial Antibodies test, a test for Coeliac Disease
• Effective Medium Approximations, a type of analytical model in materials science
• Exponential moving average, a type of moving average in technical analysis
• Electromagnetic articulography, a method of collecting data on mouth movements

In transportation:

• East Midlands Airport, an English airport with IATA code EMA

In other areas:

• E.MA, European Master's Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation
• Education Maintenance Allowance, a financial scheme for students in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

are small wooden plaques on which Shinto worshippers write their prayers or wishes. The ema are then left hanging up at the shrine, where the kami (spirits or gods) are believed to receive them. They bear various pictures, often of animals or other Shinto imagery, and many have the word gan'i (願意), meaning "wish", written along the side. In ancient times people would donate horses to the shrines for good favor; over time this was transferred to a wooden plaque with a picture of a horse, and later still to the various wooden plaques sold today for the same purpose.

Ema are sold for various wishes. Common reasons for buying a plaque are for success in work or on exams, marital bliss, to have children, and health. Some shrines specialize in certain types of these plaques, and the larger shrines may offer more than one. Sales of ema help support the shrine financially.

EMA (Evrovizijska Melodija; English: Eurovision Melody) is the national contest in Slovenia to select the country's entry since 1996 to the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest has been held since the country's debut in the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been held every year since, except for on two occasions (1994 and 2000) when Slovenia did not compete at Eurovision.

The contest is organized and broadcast by the Slovene broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV SLO). The contest was previously known as Slovenski izbor za pesem Evrovizije (literally Slovenian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest) in 1993 and 1995.