19th Century Funeral at Upper Canada Village

As part of its seasonal portrayals of life (and death), Upper Canada Village presents an annual funeral re-enactment event each year. This year’s event, on Saturday, August 22nd, will present the staging of a 19th century Irish Catholic wake, where visitors will gain dramatic insight into how many of our present-day customs have their roots in the past.

In the absence of a Roman Catholic Church or graveyard within Upper Canada Village, the emphasis at this year’s somber event will be on the customs of the wake, and visitation in the home. The wake will be staged in the Doctor’s Home, basing the family identity on an actual Irish Catholic Doctor of the period, Dr. Keogh. Two beautiful silver dish covers given to the Village by the Keogh family will be on display in the dining room of the home for this occasion.

The fictional scenario will focus on Dr. Timothy Keogh and his wife, Frances. The unfortunate victim will be Patrick Keogh, a male relative of the Doctor’s family who will be waked from his cousin’s home, and whose body will be transported at the end of the day for the funeral mass and burial at a nearby town. Patrick Keogh, the story goes, was found dead under dubious conditions in the Lowertown district of Ottawa and had for years been a member of a local Irish street gang associated with the “Shiners”, a group that had defended Irish Catholic rights in the Bytown riots of 1849. Father Meade, the parish priest, will be present at Doctor Keogh’s home to lead the prayers for the dead, in Latin.

Villagers and visitors alike may come to the house to pay their respects, and to have a bite to eat from the assortment of food provided by the women in the Village. The wake will continue until three o’clock when the pall bearers will assemble and load the coffin onto the Village’s hearse (one of the oldest of its kind in Canada today), for a long procession around the Village. The hearse will be followed by two carriages of mourning family and friends. There will be an Irish Celtic band playing at the wake and discreet quantities of “whiskey” consumed by male mourners on the front porch.

The Village’s 19th century re-enactments are all based on scenarios suggested by actual events from the 1860s as reported in historical sources. “The funeral re-enactment offers visitors a unique visual experience and demonstrates how the rites of death were observed in the 1860s”, says Peter Cazaly, Research Officer at Upper Canada Village. “In the case of this year’s Irish wake, our ongoing commitment to careful research and attention to detail will be evident in every aspect of the re-enactment, from the covering of mirrors in the home with black cloth, to the silver coins placed over the corpse’s eyes.”

The 19th Century Irish Catholic Wake will complete the series of summer events at Upper Canada Village this summer, making way for the site’s fall festivities. These annual celebrations include the “Family Music and Arts Festival” from September 5th to 7th, “Fall Gardens” day on September 12th, the “Fall Fair” on September 19th and 20th, the “Quilt Show” on September 26th and 27th, and “Fall at the Farm”, taking place from September 30th to October 4th.

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