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
David says that when he was growing up in Akron, Ohio, his family referred to the grassy area between the sidewalk and street as the devil strip. He’s since moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he doesn’t hear that term. There are lots...
Rose in Lebanon, Virginia recalls a phrase passed down from her great-grandmother: The night before the first day of school, parents would come into the children’s bedroom and say in a singsong voice: School butter, school butter. This...