Waking the Dead

As the story goes, a wake was a rowdy place to drink and dance so you could wake the dead and have them join the party. This is the origin of the saying: “you are making so much noise that you will wake the dead.” Just like the doctor who finally gives up on trying to resuscitate someone who heart quits beating, a wake has to end. At some point everyone would get tired and go home. The dead stays dead and everyone else is dead tired.

Another reason people tried to “wake the dead” was to be sure the dead person’s soul was alert and ready to transition to the afterlife. I think we all know someone who was never awake during life much less being awake after they died. For those of us that believe in the afterlife, I guess it was important to not sleep in your body and forget to go to the next stage in your journey.

A third reason was to appease the dead by having a party in their name. You never knew if this person was angry at dying and would seek revenge on the living. Showing them some love during the wake would keep them from coming back to haunt you as they do in the Ghost Whisperer TV show. This haunting thing has spawned a whole genre of movies but has never really been proven as a truth. However, without ghosts, zombies, and other undead creatures, Halloween would not be near as fun.

Finally, the fourth reason was actually to celebrate that someone had died. All of us have someone in our life that we wish would just go away. Some even think about how much better their life would be if that certain someone died. No one wants to talk about that possibility because it isn’t nice and they may just come back as a zombie and eat you. Most of us have enough enemies in this life without creating any new undead ones. So respect for the dead is very important.

Showing respect and honoring the dead person is what we think the wake should be about. Use a theme that matches the important things is that person’s life. At the wake, you can party loud enough to wake the dead, but keep in mind that it is about remembering a life well lived. It is a life that deserves to go out of this world in style.