A Typical Irish Wake House
There are many ideas on the origin of the Irish wake for example one such myth is that it originated as a result of the Irish fondness for drinking stout which used to be drunk from pewter mugs and this unfortunately had the side effect of causing lead poisoning. The symptoms of this illness was a catatonic state (where the victim appeared to be dead) but would recover a few hours later so friends would watch over the ‘corpse’ to see if they would eventually awaken. We much prefer the belief that it originated with the Celts. The Celts believed that when a person died they were moving on to a better one in the afterlife and that this was a cause to celebrate.