question on British funeral practices

[o_caipora]

> Pip!Squeak wrote:
> 
> Ah, no. The point is not what is *done*. The point is the English, 
> Scottish and Welsh would never call the things they do around a 
> death a 'wake'.
> 
> It's quite possible for an English Catholic (some did survive Henry 
> VIII {g}) to have a funeral with a vigil by the coffin (probably in 
> church), followed by full sung mass, followed by a party after the 
> burial which gets pretty lively. They wouldn't *call* any of that 
> a 'wake', though. 
> 
> It's a language thing. 

Ordinarily I'd drop this, but funerals are so big in the news this 
week that it seems topical. Pity they're burying only Mr. Reagan, 
when there are so many more deserving politicians . . . I have a 
little list.

Pip!Squeak has quite correctly differentiated the vigil, from the 
Mass, from a party or reception following.

As to it being "a language thing", there are two responses. One is 
the old joke about "How many legs does a dog have, if you call the 
tail a leg?" The answer is four: just because you call it a leg 
doesn't make it one. If that response is too vulgar, a more erudite 
one is Samuel Johnson's dicta that "Words are the daughters of Earth, 
and things are the sons of Heaven".  

As a model for fan fiction, two examples come to mind, but both from 
Boston rather than England. One is "The Late George Apley", the novel 
for which John P. Marquand won the Pulitzer. Apley is the very model 
of a "Boston Brahmin", an upper-class WASP. Near the end are Apley's 
instructions for his funeral, and the reception afterwards. IIRC, he 
notes which "pushy" relatives should be seated far back, and that 
cigars and sherry should be provided in the library for the executors 
of his will and a few others. Perhaps a good model to follow if a 
Malfoy is being buried.

The second example is from the film "The Last Hurrah" where the Irish 
mayor uses a policeman's wake as a campaign rally. Someone objects, 
and he points out that the widow (who doesn't know what's going on) 
is happy, she never knew her husband had so many friends.

The book should be available in any library, and the movie is easily 
rented.

On Catholicism and Henry VIII, maintaining the faith under 
persecution required a great deal of secrecy. Rather like being a 
witch or wizard. A staple of Gothic novels is the "priest's hole", a 
secret chamber to hide when the King's men came around. 

Living in secrecy, wizards would have no urgent need to change faith 
to follow the fashions of the time. On the other hand, with a large 
secret to conceal, they might be more concerned than most to be 
outwardly conventional. 

Fiction could go either way. But the real persecution of Catholics 
(or Jews, or Gypsies) might be a good model for any tale of the 
treatment of wizards.

This doesn't even get into ghosts. Is it immediately obvious that 
someone has become a ghost instead of "passing on"? Do you hold a 
Mass for the repose of someone's soul when his ghost is hanging 
around and clearly not reposing? If a ghost finally lets go of this 
world, do you then hold a Mass? And if several hundred years have 
passed, where do you find mourners? 

  - Caipora