Why is the gathering before a funeral called a wake?

Dear Sebastian – 

      Wakes are a very old tradition of the Irish/Celtic people.  
Wakes were customarily held the day before a funeral or burial of the
deceased.    It was actually a watch over the deceased to see if there
would be an awakening.   The time during the wake was for family and
friends to come and view the body and pay their respects to the
deceased as well as the family.   It was a process of cleaning and
laying out of the body for burial.   Women from the town who were
experienced in this process would come and assist the house.   Wakes
were held in the house of the deceased.  It has only been in recent
times that the viewing or laying out of the body was held at a funeral
home.
    It was not uncommon that a wake would turn rather festive and
party like during the midnight hour.   Common games were "riddle me
ree" and " Priest of Parish".   It seems that music and stage play
gave the family some relieve from the all night watch and helped in
the grieving process.   Storiestellers were common as well.

This is taken from the American Funeral (
http://www.ccgsilib.org/american_funeral.html ) “	THE WAKE – Methods
of confirming death were crude. Stories of burying life persons were
not uncommon.  In an attempt to prevent premature burial, families
would sit by the body for several hours or a few days watching to see
if the person awakened.  This became known as the “wake”.  In the
Jewish tradition, this became a religious ritual known as the
“watching”.  They even have special benches used exclusively for this
ritual purpose.  During the wake or watching, families would be joined
by friends.  Today, this tradition is carried on in the form of the
“viewing” or “visitation”.  “

Additional resources:

Wakes
http://www.castlestoshamrocks.com/holidays/wakes.html

A site devoted to origins of words and slang phrases.
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorw.htm

The American Funeral
http://www.ccgsilib.org/american_funeral.html

wake
http://www.bcpl.net/~hutmanpr/wake.html#Wake%20basics

Search Strategy:
Wakes Origin
Funeral Wakes Origin
Celtic Wake origin

Hope that helps,
 
morningstar