Hauntings, haints, and lighthouses
Apalachicolans are accustomed to the late October spectre of youthful goblins and ghosts prowling our alleys and stalking our criss-crossed avenues and streets, gleefully demanding Halloween treats in return for sparing us their ghoulish tricks. But the spirits of the dead walk among us in early May as well, just as they did in ancient Rome.
On May 9, 11 and 13 each year, the Romans celebrated the Lemuria, a festival where magical incantations and rituals were performed by the head of the household to exorcise malevolent ancestral spirits, lemures, from their homes. The lemurs, who lent their name to those bug-eyed nocturnal primates of Madagascar, were associated with the lamiae, vampires who feasted on children.
