We here in North America have a very puritan mindset when it comes to the death of a loved one... a very sombre, often-black-clad affair, when much weeping and gnashing of teeth occurs... the family lines up next to the coffin/urn and guests pass by, uttering condolences... more weeping... eventually food is brought out and everyone eats... but never near the deceased - so far as I've experienced, at any rate.
Enter the Irish Wake.
It's funny how the 'old world' traditions become bogged down somehow and tossed aside for the white-washed so-called customs we cling to tenaciously on THIS side of the 'pond'...
In Ireland (up until 1970 or so, though it is suspected that some rural Irish folks still practice the tradition), the Irish Wake was held more as a 'celebration' of death as well as loss (as opposed to simply the loss-thing we do here in North America)...
In truth, from a scientific and immunological standpoint, I can see WHY the Irish Wake isn't practiced anymore as a general rule... you see... there's one crucial difference between a North American wake and an Irish wake:
When you're at an Irish wake, and you go to the meal afterward to commemorate the departed family member... the deceased COMES WITH YOU.
Yeah, seriously.
Open the window... and no one block it... that's to allow the soul of the departed access to leave.
They then wash the body, do a bit of formal wailing and place the body in the coffin, take the deceased to the Wake House that has been prepared for the event, and set the coffin there. Generally the clocks in the house are stopped (so as to reflect that 'time has stopped for the family of the deceased') and all mirrors in the house are covered (as the soul of the departed may still be there and might get trapped in one of the mirrors). The family and friends arrive and the feasting commences, complete with ribald tales (told solemnly!) of the deceased and general (quiet) merriment.
It's a bit less (and in a way MORE) formal of a send-off than one might expect when one attends a North American funeral... the old Celtic traditions of 'celebration of the deceased passing over to a better afterlife' seem to have been passed over themselves to a much more maudlin mindset.
Not if *I* have anything to say about it...
So raise yer glass, boyo... and may I live to sing at your wake!
http://www.yourirish.com/traditions-of-an-irish-funeral
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlcar2/An_Irish_Wake.htm
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