Folk-Lore of West and Mid-WalesDavies, Jonathan Ceredig
History
Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales
Davies, Jonathan Ceredig
Folklore -- Wales; Wales -- Social life and customs
It was once customary in the neighbourhood of Llangennech,
Carmarthenshire, to cover with muslin the looking glass in the room
in which the corpse lay. But to return to the Wake Night, or keeping
vigil over the dead, I have already mentioned that the only feature
of the old customs in connection with it still observed is the Prayer
Meeting on the night before the funeral, and even this has been almost
discontinued in Pembrokeshire, though still popular in Cardiganshire
and parts of Carmarthenshire, but the custom is very injurious to the
health of those who attend these meetings, as people crowd together
in large numbers into the room--often a small one--where the coffin
is. It was once the custom for every person on entering the house to
fall devoutly on his knees before the corpse, and repeat the Lord's
Prayer, or some other prayer, and then a pipe and tobacco were offered
to him, but is not done now; but it was done in former times in many
districts before the commencement of the prayer meeting.
The manner of conducting this prayer meeting also differs at the
present day to what it used to be once. In former times, before the
Nonconformists became strong in Wales, it was the custom for the
clergyman to read the common service appointed for the burial of the
dead, and at the conclusion of which Psalms were sung; but at the
present day the custom is, as a rule, for three or four persons to
offer extemporary prayers, and an address delivered on the melancholy
subject by the Clergyman of the Church of England or a Nonconformist
minister, and hymns are sung. And afterwards the crowd depart for
their homes.
Formerly when it was customary to keep vigil over the dead, young men
and women were glad to volunteer their services to watch the corpse
during the night in order to enjoy the society of each other, and on
some occasions, it seems, from what I have been told by old persons,
some of the young men were rather merry before morning, and often
went as far as to drink beer, and in order to pass the time good many
stories were related about Corpse Candles, phantom funerals, etc.,
but the old Welsh Wake nights were never so rowdy as the Irish ones.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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