yesterday was phase one: getting her remains re-situated --- today was phase two: "visitation," where a whole bunch of people come in and out and mill about --- this little ritual is a vestigial remnant of the old irish wake, that might go on for days and involve lots of alcohol ---- from wikipedia:
In 1752 Richard Pococke observed a wake in County Down: "I saw a number of women in an adjacent cabin, and my curiosity led me to go in, it was a wake over the body of an old man, who was stretched on the floor and covered with a sheet. About 3 feet above the corpse was a board covered with a white cloth, on which they place candles; and the women sit round the corpse, they are entertained with a spirit of Barley, call'd Whiskey, with Tobacco and sometimes with bread, cake, &c, and frequently drink to excess with such instances of mortality before their eyes, and this they look on as an act of Devotion."
indeed
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