Funeral - wake

[waiglet]

Why is the "do" after a funeral referred to as a wake?

[mallam]

A wake is a vigil. You stay awake for it.

[BillySugger]

According to Wikipedia -
"The English word "wake" originated from the ancient Indo-European root "***" or "weg," meaning "to be active." This evolved into several meanings, including "growth" ("vegetable"), "to become or stay alert," and "watching or guarding." The third also evolved into the word "watch," and it is in this sense that people have a "wake" for someone who recently died"[1]. While the modern usage of the verb "wake" is to "become or stay alert", a "wake" for the dead harks back to the antiquated "watch or guard" sense."

[andy-hughes]

The term 'wake' means 'following' - as in a boat's wake.

So the wake follows the funeral.

[BillySugger]

The *** are for w o g - I'm not making this up !

[mallam]

Yes Billy, Wiki is more detailed. One of the �reflexes� of the Proto-IE etymon is indeed "watch�.

I suggested �vigil�, and �to keep vigil� is more or less synonymous with �to keep watch�, and more accurately reflects the sense in which people have a "wake" for someone who recently died. You cannot keep either without staying awake!
Also it more accurately reflects the sense that it typically goes on all night. OED confirms this, and cites recent historical evidence for this.

Andy, I presume you are joking, That �wake� is of course NOT related to this one, and the pun would work better if you said the wake is the wake of someone�s life, rather than his funeral.

[Blackdove]

It's called a wake because the mourners stay awake during the night, originally to watch and pray over the corpse

'Wake' is the native English equivalent of the Latin-derived 'vigil'. It was formerly used of all kinds of religious vigils, but is now generally confined to funerals.

[Ethel]

A wake takes place after death, but before the funeral usually in the home of the deceased with the open coffin.

It was originally to watch for signs for life so the relatives could be absolutely sure their loved one was actually dead before the funeral took place.

The 'do' after the funeral is the 'funeral tea'.

[waiglet]

Thanks everyone.

[R1Geezer]

this is one of those things that go round the net, not sure if it's bowlocks but anyway:
"Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out of R a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table of R a couple of days and the family would gathe R a round and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake. "

[coccinelle]

Does everybody agree on this:
a wake is between the death and the funeral?
If not, there's some confusion....
'A wake is when the dead body is watched over by family members 24/24. This way is doesn't get snatched nor does it get buried alive... ' This is what my grandmother told me!

[johanna02]

There is a true story of a rich lady who died in Ireland many years ago. she wore beautiful gold rings on her fingers and was buried wearing the rings. On the night following her burial thieves dug up her grave in a bid to steal the gold rings from her fingers. To make a quick getaway they decided to cut her fingers off with a hatchet and guess what??? Yes the lady woke up! She wasn't dead at all. (I never heard how long she lived for the second time round)

[mallam]

R1Geezer,

Is it to lend an air of verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative that you pepper your post with u.c. Rs for l.c. as is typical of Irish handwriting? Fraid I don't think any indication of Irish identity would fortify your story.

True, pewter drinking vessels were widely used, and pewter was about 20% lead, but what about the lead pipes for drinking water! And even these days there are still plenty of people waking up in morgues, and brain death is about 40% misdiagnosed. In the days of your net-orbiting urban myth there were far more perfectly good reasons to fear premature burial (cf The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe.

[mallam]

So yes, coccinelle, everyone who is not actually delusional does agree that a wake is between the death and the funeral. It is about your grandma's 24/24 that there appears to be some debate.