The American Wake of Ireland: Symbolic Death Ritual

Abstract

Knowledge of a group's death customs can provide insight into their social system. The wake and funeral of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ireland have been said to provide the most dramatic revelation of community life during those times. In the early days of Irish emigration when the journey to North America was considered to be a final separation, Irish society developed an institution known as the American wake. Among other things, it provided a mechanism for ventilating the grief associated with this special type of bereavement. This article examines the similarities between the American wake and a wake for the dead and is concerned with how the emigrant wake reflected the Irish view of life and death.