I'm not entirely sure where I got the idea. It's perhaps somewhat speculative on my part based in part on the word used for such things.
Why would people call the viewing of the body a wake if they weren't hoping the person would awaken? I know I've discussed it with people and I know I've read of incidents where someone was thought to be dead and wasn't.
One story was about a child that was thought to be dead during an epidemic and the family was unable to find a box big enough to bury him. They bent his legs up sideways to fit him in the too short box they had.
On the one hand, he lived because they only bent his legs up (instead of cutting them off to make him fit). On the other hand, he never walked right because of it. He was permanently maimed.
The Bible also has a passage where Jesus says "Why do you weep? She isn't dead. She only sleeps." And he tells the girl to arise and she opens her eyes.
So we have records of such incidents going back at least 2000 years. And we have a tradition of viewing the body before burying it.
It seems likely to me these things are not unrelated though I'm not sure we really have anything that explicitly says "The historical origin of the practice is rooted in this."
So to be clear this is possibly opinion not something I learned in some history class or other.
> Why would people call the viewing of the body a wake if they weren't hoping the person would awaken?
Wikipedia says: "While the modern usage of the verb wake is 'become or stay alert', a wake for the dead harks back to the vigil, 'watch' or 'guard' of earlier times. It is a misconception that people at a wake are waiting in case the deceased should 'wake up'."
Why would people call the viewing of the body a wake if they weren't hoping the person would awaken? I know I've discussed it with people and I know I've read of incidents where someone was thought to be dead and wasn't.
One story was about a child that was thought to be dead during an epidemic and the family was unable to find a box big enough to bury him. They bent his legs up sideways to fit him in the too short box they had.
On the one hand, he lived because they only bent his legs up (instead of cutting them off to make him fit). On the other hand, he never walked right because of it. He was permanently maimed.
The Bible also has a passage where Jesus says "Why do you weep? She isn't dead. She only sleeps." And he tells the girl to arise and she opens her eyes.
So we have records of such incidents going back at least 2000 years. And we have a tradition of viewing the body before burying it.
It seems likely to me these things are not unrelated though I'm not sure we really have anything that explicitly says "The historical origin of the practice is rooted in this."
So to be clear this is possibly opinion not something I learned in some history class or other.