WAIVER, in law, the neglect or refusal of a person to take advantage of his right. Every person must claim the exercise of his rights at the proper moment; his neglect or relinquishment will be regarded as a waiver. A party bringing suit against another may sometimes waive one remedy and pursue another.
WAKE (from the Anglo-Saxon wacian, to watch) is the English equivalent of the ecclesiastical vigil (q.v.). In early times, the day was considered as beginning and ending at sunset; Sundays and holidays, iu consequence, began not on the morning, but on the previous evening (the eve of the holiday), and worshipers then repaired to the churches for worship. The following day was spent in amusement. Each church when consecrated was dedicated to a saint, and on the anniversary of that day was kept the parish wiike. In many places, there was a second wake on the birthday of the saint. On these occasions, the floor of the church was strewed with rushes and flowers, and the altar and pulpit were decked with boughs and leaves. In the churchyard, tents were erected to supply cakes and ale for the use of the crowd on the morrow, which was kept as a holiday. The second part of the festival seems to have made most impression on the popular mind, and the word wake came to be applied3o it. Crowds resorted to the wakes from neighboring parishes, hawkers or merchants were attracted by the crowds, and they became mere fairs or markets, little under the influence of the church, and disgraced by scenes of indulgence and riot. In 1285, Edward I. passed
a statute which forbade fairs and markets to be held in country churchyards; but it does not appear to have put an end to the evil. In 1448 Henry VI. ordained that all showing of goods and merchandise, except necessary victuals, should be discontinued on the great festivals of the church. These regulations do not seem to have been strictly en forced. An act of convocation passed in 1536, during the reign of Henry VIII., seems to have effected a more important change. It ordered the day of the dedication of the church to be kept in all parishes on, the first Sunday in October, and gradually that fes tival ceased to be observed. The saint's-day festivals were not, however, affected, and they are still kept in many English parishes under the name of "country wakes." A lyke-wake or liclic-wake is a watching of a dead body (A.-S. lie) all night by the friends and neighbors of the deceased. The custom no doubt originated iu superstitious fear either of passing the night alone with a dead body, or of its being interfered with by evil spirits. It must at all times have led to scenes ill suited to the occasion, and it now survives only among the lower classes in Ireland.—See Brand's Popular Antiquities, by Ellis.