No mourning the dead!
Culture Box
Stabroek News
April 21, 2007
Have you been to a wake lately? Okay, we know a wake is not a pleasant gathering and most times, you are sad attending one as you would have lost someone close to you.
But if you have been to a wake recently you would have seen how they have evolved over the years. Now we are not saying that all wakes have changed, but a great many have become something different. Traditionally, when you attended a wake persons would sit around and remember the good old days spent with the deceased. Others would be found comforting the relatives of the deceased, or playing a game of dominoes or cards. All of this would happen as gospel music is played quietly in the background and biscuits and tea/coffee are served. Cook-up rice was always served on the last night of the wake.
Not today. Wakes like funerals are totally different. Not too long ago in this same column, we talked about the boom boxes accompanying funeral procession and how those in attendance would be seen consuming alcohol while dressed in their very best party wear.
Well, at many wakes today you can be sure to find a one-man band. And his singing would be so loud that you cannot carry on a conversation. There are also those that have huge boom boxes and which would belt out what would be said the deceased's favourite music! And as the person is dead s/he can neither confirm nor deny whether that was indeed his/her choice of music, though it is played loud enough to "wake the dead".
Sometimes they start out with gospel music, but soon this moves to culture, reggae and soul. We have not heard any soca, but who knows?
Shocking, but not surprising, as the music is belted out, either by the one-man band or the music set, people dance. Honest! We have even seen people waltzing to what is generally known as "oldies" music and having a grand old time. Is this appropriate? Come on it is a wake, someone has died, what is the waltzing about?!
But that is not all. The menu at wakes nowadays is mind-boggling. No more biscuits and coffee and cook-up. You have a choice of rice, a choice of how the chicken is cooked - baked or fried - not to mention the numerous side dishes and hors d'oeuvres. Can you imagine how much it costs to prepare such a menu? And to do it for more than one night? Do we even dare mention the drinks?
The varieties of beer, shandy, rum, vodka, gin and whisky that are an obvious must-have at such a do?
We are not sure how or what has happened over the years but someone must have started it and others would have felt they had to go one better. It is now totally out of control. Possibly, the same thing happened as regards funerals. It is like a style really, as unfortunate as it may sound; you see someone wearing what you may think is trendy and you go out and try to outdo them.
It is sad really. But perhaps persons are taking what most preachers say at funerals literally: 'that there should be no mourning but rather a celebration as the person would have left this sinful world for some place better.'