American wake
n.— «Connolly then recounted the first time he picked up a fiddle; he was about 9 or 10 years old and was at a party for his Uncle Patty who was immigrating to the United States. Such going-away-parties in Ireland were referred to as “American wakes” because those who immigrated to the United States were “considered dead or gone forever,” as Connolly said.» —“Ten-time Fiddler champion offers advice” by Jamie Fleming in Boston College The Heights (Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts) Mar. 19, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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