> The traditional wake is probably rooted in watching the "dead" body for a few days to see if it wakes up before burying them
As noted elsewhere, according to wikipedia this is a misconception. Quote: "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'.", source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_(ceremony) .
Thank you. I missed that when I checked Wikipedia earlier.
Wikipedia is known to have inaccuracies at times and it's surprisingly hard to find good sources on this subject. FWIW, Snopes disagrees in this fascinating piece about known cases of people being buried alive:
The practice of ‘waking’ the dead (having someone sit with the deceased from the time of death until burial in case he ‘wakes up’) began out of this concern.
As noted elsewhere, according to wikipedia this is a misconception. Quote: "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'.", source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_(ceremony) .