Has The Definition Of A Wake Changed.

[Stargazer]

It was always about watching over the deceased's body, usually in the home, and not a reception/get together with food etc. which is what it seems to have become.

[tiggerblue10]

Sounds quite fun, Sharon. The gatherings I go to involve Muslim prayers. I only go out of respect for the deceased but I don't take part in the prayers. I take some nibbles too.

[jennyjoan]

Emmie my mother used to say it was good for rain at a burial

Happy the corpse the rain falls on whats happy being dead

[burlyshirley]

Only ever been to one wake in my lifetime, it was many years ago. A friend/neighbour in my street invited me to her Dad's who was Irish. I got the shock of my life, his coffin was open and he lay there and she asked me to touch his hand - don't know why ! I did, but I didn't like it. Will never go to another one.

[jennyjoan]

I have been to loads that i cant count but always touched their hands and when it was my mother and father i kissed them

[Bobbisox1]

Emmie there's an old saying " happy the corpse that the rain falls on"

/// Happy is the bride that the sun shines on! Happy is the corpse that the rain falls on! This was one of those old sayings that made everyone shudder! If you were getting married and were Catholic, all your relatives were putting rosary beads on the clothes line to ensure a sunny day. If you were mourning the dead, you asked for rain.///

[jno]

wake and watch are doublet words (like bake and batch) so, yes, originally it was about staying with the body before death, making sure Burke and Hare weren't outside waiting to pinch it. But I don't know that many people sit by bodies any maore. so it's changed its meaning. Maybe it should be called "the afterparty", like at the Oscars.

[Bobbisox1]

My ex sister in law had him brought to the house, she sat by herself talking to him all night, one could only imagine her asking his forgiveness for the affair she left him for then returned home when the 'affair' died :0/

[jno]

she left that a bit late, bobbi

[Bobbisox1]

I did ask her jno, this was only 3 years ago and we have remained friends, she wasn't very forthcoming about the one way conversation though :0(

[carolegif]

When I was a child, the parlour was used for ‘the laying out’ of the body. Coffin on the dining table and the neighbours came to ‘pay their respects’. All the curtains in the street were drawn on the day of the funeral and people stood in their doorways and took off their hats as the coffin went past.
My Mum’s father died young and my Mum was only 20. Everyone was upset as she refused to see him, but she said she wanted to remember him alive.

[jno]

lol, and you can't ask him...

[Bobbisox1]

I remember most streets had a person who laid people out , what a weird pastime :0))

[Bobbisox1]

Jno , I did say to her was she wanting absolution ?

[jno]

true, she might have told him "shake your head if you don't forgive me".

[burlyshirley]

If it had been my Mum or Dad jj, I would have kissed them too. Didn't want to touch a near stranger though !

I remember when I was a child, it was the done thing to close the curtains in the house when someone had died.

[jennyjoan]

Yes mirrors and pictures covered with black cloths and a wreath hung over the front door letting you know there was dead