What is "lemuria"

Lemuria \Le*mu"ri*a\ (l[-e]*m[=u]"r[i^]*[.a]), n. [So named from the supposition that it was the original home of the lemurs.] A hypothetical land, or continent, supposed by some to have existed formerly in the Indian Ocean, of which Madagascar is a remnant.
--Herschel.

Lemuria may refer to:

• Lemuria (festival), in Roman religion, a feast during which the unwholesome and malevolent spectres of the restless dead (lemures) were propitiated
• Lemuria (continent), a hypothetical land mass in the Indian Ocean

See also Lemuria in popular culture

The Lemuralia or Lemuria was a feast in the religion of ancient Rome during which the Romans performed rites to exorcise the malevolent and fearful ghosts of the dead from their homes. The unwholesome spectres of the restless dead, the lemures or larvae were propitiated with offerings of beans. On those days, the Vestals would prepare sacred mola salsa, a salted flour cake, from the first ears of wheat of the season. In the Julian calendar the three days of the feast were 9, 11, and 13 May. The origin myth of this ancient festival, according to Ovid, who derives Lemuria from a supposed Remuria was that it had been instituted by Romulus to appease the spirit of Remus (Ovid, Fasti, V.421ff; Porphyrius). 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, "I send these; with these beans I redeem me and mine" (Haec ego mitto; his redimo meque meosque fabis.) nine times. The household would then clash bronze pots while repeating, "Ghosts of my fathers and ancestors, be gone!" nine times.

Because of this annual exorcism of the noxious spirits of the dead, the whole month of May was rendered unlucky for marriages, whence the proverb Mense Maio malae nubent ("They wed ill who wed in May").

On what had been the culminating day of the Lemuralia, May 13 in 609 or 610— the day being recorded as more significant than the year—, Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon at Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, and the feast of that dedicatio Sanctae Mariae ad Martyres has been celebrated at Rome ever since. According to cultural historians, this ancient custom was Christianized in the feast of All Saints' Day, established in Rome first on May 13, in order to de-paganize the Roman Lemuria, while others see a link to the May 13 date in Saint Ephrem's celebration of All Saints on that day in the 4th century.

Lemuria is the name of a hypothetical " lost land" variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The concept's 19th-century origins lie in attempts to account for discontinuities in biogeography; however, the concept of Lemuria has been rendered obsolete by modern theories of plate tectonics. Although sunken continents do exist – like Zealandia in the Pacific as well as Mauritia and the Kerguelen Plateau in the Indian Ocean – there is no known geological formation under the Indian or Pacific Oceans that corresponds to the hypothetical Lemuria.

Though Lemuria is no longer considered a valid scientific hypothesis, it has been adopted by writers involved in the occult, as well as by some Tamil writers in India. Accounts of Lemuria differ, but all share a common belief that a continent existed in ancient times and sank beneath the ocean as a result of a geological, often cataclysmic, change, such as pole shift.

Lemuria is the eleventh full-length musical album by symphonic metal band Therion. The album title refers to the name of a supposed sunken continent Lemuria, much like Atlantis. It was released simultaneously with Sirius B. Cover artwork was made by Thomas Ewerhard.

Lemuria is an American rock band from Buffalo, New York, formed in 2004. After a slew of singles and EPs in their early years, not to mention a few bassists, Lemuria has more recently crafted three seminally popular albums and a hearty touring schedule in the U.S. and internationally. The band's most recent efforts have been recorded by indie rock stalwart J. Robbins and released on Boston-based record label, Bridge 9 Records.

Lemuria is a symphonic black metal band from Antwerp, Belgium formed in 1999. Lemuria has recently released "Chanson de la Croisade", a CD about the prosecution of the Cathars, members of a Christian religious movement that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries.