Acerra (or Acerna)

Acerra (Or Acerna)

in Roman antiquity, was a little box or pot in which were put the incense and perfumes to be burned on the altars of the gods and before the dead. It appears to have been the same with what was otherwise called thuribulum and pyxis. The censers of the Jews were acerrae, and the Romanists still retain the use of acerrae under the name of incense-pots.

The name acerra was also applied to an altar erected, among the Romans, near the bed of a person recently deceased, on which his friends offered incense daily until his burial. The real intention probably was to fumigate the apartment. The Chinese have still a somewhat similar custom.