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You are here: Home / Language / How Did the Tradition of Wakes For Funerals Originate and What is the Significance of the Custom?

How Did the Tradition of Wakes For Funerals Originate and What is the Significance of the Custom?

June 28, 2020 by Karen Hill

The Irish are the most famous for their wakes, holding elaborate and festive celebrations with testimonials and toasts to the recently deceased.

The custom began long before the advances of scientific undertaking and was a way of passing enough time to ensure that the subject wasn’t about to be buried alive.

The ritual was held to see if the subject would wake up, which sometimes happened, and so it was called a “wake.”

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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