Origin of Phrases - W
Wakes
The practice of having a wake started sometime in the 1500s. There was a rash of people who were thought to be dead that were actually being buried alive. With medicine was still in its early stages, doctors assumed that those who had a slow heart or pulse rate or were not noticeably breathing were deceased. A funeral would be held and, eventually, the deceased person would awaken in his grave. It's believed that some of these people were able to break out of their coffins and return to their homes. To help prevent this mistake from happening, families would place the "dead" person on a table (or sometimes in a coffin) and would sit and watch over the body for a few days, in case he/she awoke.