re: Do people still sit up with the dead at funeral homes?

v100butch,


I'm from deep South Louisiana and I have been a part of the " stay up all night traditions". BUT, I realize that times have changed as well as overall knowledge is more prevelant. When I was a small child, I can WELL remember those overnight vigils at funeral homes in Evangeline Parish. Most of the things I remember were stories of the deceased at late hours. Though they were probably out of boredom, they were told nonetheless. Some we're good, some weren't so much. If all I have to look forward to post-mortem is gossip, then light it up for the cremation. The rest is just symbolic custom...

I'm originally from north LA. My grandmother passed away a couple of years ago. They lived in the country north of Dubach. She insisted on her death bed that someone needed to stay with her overnight at the funeral home before she was burried, but after she passed the funeral home we used wouldn't allow it and said no one really did that anymore. I thought the whole idea was strange and pointless, but I still felt sad her wishes weren't granted.

It is mostly an older generation thing. I have done it once as part of an Italian family. There were about 12 of us that stayed. We paid extra for being able to do that.


This pic below is just so sad. This wife stayed with her husband's body all night also.



The night before the burial of her husband 2nd Lt. James Cathey of the United States Marine Corps, killed in Iraq, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of “Cat”,

Paid? Haven't heard of that one before.

Back in the day my older family members down the bayou were put in a coffin and the coffin placed in the living room of the house and relatives and friends would come to the house to view the body.

They did this when I was a kid. Went to several in rural LA where the elder relative's coffin was placed in the living room and a vigil was kept overnight, and plenty of food was in the kitchen for people who would come at all hours of the night. Didn't think it was weird then, and I don't now. It's a custom left over from where people were kept under observation in case they woke up before they were buried, hence the term "wake." When burial plots were expensive and re-used, it was common to open the grave and find the "dead" had tried to claw their way out of the coffin... some placed a bell at ground level with a string to the coffin so that if the dead awoke, they could alert others by ringing the bell, hence the term "saved by the bell."

Oh well, just make sure I'm dead when the time comes.

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Paid? Haven't heard of that one before.

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I presume we paid extra because they had to have staff there because we were there. Otherwise they would have closed for the night. This just billed it under extra hours of usage of using the room my FIL was in.

Also we had a big on of their bigger rooms and had it for over 24 hours. Thus they lost income from being able to charge others for using it.

So I guess the charge was for that. It was no big deal to us to pay extra. It was what MIL wanted and it was what we did.

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Do the Catholics still strike the Pope on the forehead with a silver hammer? Serious question.

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How else are you supposed to know if he is dead or not. C'mon, man, think!

Yea, that one's a tear-jerker for sure...