School: Faythe (roll number 11361)

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1. Customs at Wakes and Funerals (continued)

   

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   The person's hands are joined and a pair of rosary beads with a happy death cross attached to it are placed in his hands.

   Relatives and friends sit in the room and during the night someone watches the corpse.

   When the dead person is "waked" it is a custom for the relatives to visit the house and spend a while in the room in which the corpse is "laid out". The corpse which is dressed in a habit is laid either in the bed on which there is a white quilt or in the coffin. The room is usually nicely prepared, the pictures and mirrors covered over with white muslin to which black ribbon is attached. Near the head of the coffin a small table covered with a white cloth, is placed on, which there is a crucifix, four lighted candles and vases of flowers.

   The relatives who visit the house bring a wreath or bunch of flowers which they place at the

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. social activities (~7)
         1. rites of passage (~573)
            1. marriage (~4,283)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Maureen Fenelon

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Maudlintown, Co. Wexford