WAKES. Mr Whitaker, in his History of Manchester, has given a particular account of the origin of wakes and fairs. He observes, that every church at its consecration received the name of some particular saint; that this custom was practised among the Roman Britons, and continued among the Saxons; and that in the council of Cealchythe, in 816, the name of the denominating saint was expressly required to be inscribed on the altars, and also on the walls of the church, or a tablet within it. The feast of this saint became of course the festival of the church. Thus Christian festivals were substituted in the room of the idolatrous anniversaries of heathenism. Accordingly, at the first introduction of Christianity among the Jutes of Kent, Pope Gregory the Great advised, what had been previously done among the Britons, viz. Christian festivals to be instituted in the room of the idolatrous, and the suffering day of the martyr whose relics were reposited in the church, or the day on which the building was actually dedicated, to be the established feast of the parish. Both were appointed and observed; and at first they were clearly distinguished among the Saxons, as appears from the laws of the Confessor, where the dies dedicationis, or dedicatio, is repeatedly discriminated from the propria festivitas sancti, or celebratio sancti. They remained equally distinct till the Reformation. In 1536 the dedication-day was ordered for the future to be kept on the first Sunday in October, and the festival of the patron saint to be celebrated no longer. The [7:21:709]latter was, by way of pre-eminence, denominated the church’s holiday, or its peculiar festival; and while this remains in many parishes at present, the other is so utterly annihilated in all, that Bishop Kennet, says Mr Whitaker, knew nothing of its distinct existence, and has attributed to the day of dedication what is true only concerning the saint’s day. Thus instituted at first, the day of the tutelar saint was observed, most probably by the Britons, and certainly by the Saxons, with great devotion. And the evening before every saint’s day, in the Saxon Jewish method of reckoning the hours, being an actual hour of the day, and therefore, like that, appropriated to the duties of public religion, as they reckoned Sunday from the first to commence at the sunset of Saturday, the evening preceding the church’s holiday would be observed with all the devotion of the festival. The people actually repaired to the church, and joined in the services of it; and they thus spent the evening of their greater festivities, in the monasteries of the north, as early as the conclusion of the seventh century.

These services were naturally denominated, from their late hours, woecan or wakes, and vigils or eves. That of the anniversary at Ripon, as early as the commencement of the eighth century, is expressly denominated the vigil. But that of the church’s holiday was named cyric woecan, or church-wake, the church-vigil, or church-eve. And it was this commencement of both with a wake, which has now caused the days to be generally preceded with vigils, and the church-holiday particularly to be denominated the church-wake. So religiously were the eve and festival of the patron saint observed for many ages by the Saxons, even as late as the reign of Edgar, the former being spent in the church, and employed in prayer. And the wakes, and all the other holidays in the year, were put upon the same footing with the octaves of Christmas, Easter, and of Pentecost. When Gregory recommended the festival of the patron saint, he advised the people to erect booths of branches about the church on the day of the festival, and to feast and be merry in them with innocence. Accordingly, in every parish, on the returning anniversary of the saint, little pavilions were constructed of boughs, and the people indulged in them to hospitality and mirth. The feasting of the saint’s day, however, was soon abused; and even in the body of the church, when the people were assembled for devotion, they began to mind diversions, and to introduce drinking. The growing intemperance gradually stained the service of the vigil, till the festivity of it was converted, as it now is, into the rigour of a fast. At length they too justly scandalized the Puritans of the seventeenth century, and numbers of the wakes were disused entirely, especially in the east and some western parts of England; but they are commonly observed in the north, and in the midland counties.

This custom of celebrity in the neighbourhood of the church, on the days of particular saints, was introduced into England from the continent, and must have been familiar equally to the Britons and Saxons; being observed among the churches of Asia in the sixth century, and by those of the west of Europe in the seventh. And equally in Asia and Europe, on the continent and in the islands, those celebrities were the causes of those commercial marts which we denominate fairs. The people resorted in crowds to the festival, and a considerable provision would be wanted for their entertainment. The prospect of interest invited the little traders of the country to come and offer their wares; and thus among the many pavilions for hospitality in the neighbourhood of the church, various booths were erected for the sale of different commodities. In larger towns, surrounded with populous districts, the resort of the people to the wakes would be great, and the attendance of traders numerous; and this resort and attendance constitute a fair. Basil expressly mentions the numerous appearance of traders at these festivals in Asia, and Gregory notes the same custom to be common in Europe. And as the festival was observed on a feria or holiday, it naturally assumed to itself, and as naturally communicated to the mart, the appellation of feria or fair. Indeed several of our most ancient fairs appear to have been usually held, and have been continued to our time, on the original church-holidays of the place: besides, it is observable, that fairs were generally kept in church-yards, and even in the churches, and also on Sundays, till the indecency and scandal were so great as to need reformation.