A woman in Thailand shocked temple staff when she started moving in her coffin after being brought in for cremation.
Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a Buddhist temple in the province of Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Bangkok, posted a video on its Facebook page, showing a woman lying in a white coffin in the back of a pick-up truck, slightly moving her arms and head, leaving temple staff bewildered.
Pairat Soodthoop, the temple’s general and financial affairs manager, told The Associated Press on Monday that the 65-year-old woman’s brother drove her from the province of Phitsanulok to be cremated.
He said they heard a faint knock coming from the coffin.
That’s why you always do a wake!
Holy crap! Is that where the term comes from or is this just a really good pun?
It means to keep watch and part of that is to make sure they are really dead.
Really loose recollection and paraphrasing;
Trace contaminations in alcohol could lead heavy drinkers to pass out in a coma-like state for potentially days at a time. Given the frequency, holding a wake to be absolutely sure it wasn’t one of these poisonings became a useful custom.
And then of course, changes and regulations mean the contaminations are weeded out of the process, but the ritual itself persists because of human habit.
TIL that’s why it’s called that.