A wake is when people go to a person's home or a funeral parlor to pay last respects. A funeral parlor is a place the preparation of the corpse for burial takes . Part of the preparation can be dressing the , doing their makeup, and placing them in a for people to see. Some people do have closed casket wake, where you can't see the person; some people are not even choosing coffins their dearly departed loved ones.

In the United , more and more families are choosing not to traditional wakes. There is a recent trend of having non-traditional wakes with the deceased person posed something they loved doing when they were alive. example, a family in New Orleans had their loved one posed at a table with a between her fingers and a can of beer. funeral home in Puerto Rico has become famous its non-traditional wakes. It all started in 2008, a family asked for their dead loved one be propped up against the wall of their for the wake. When a paramedic died, his had his dead body in the driver's seat an ambulance. Another family had a man propped in a fake boxing ring for his wake. dead man was posed on top of his . Recently, a grandmother was posed sitting in her chair.

These non-traditional wakes have their critics though. people think they are disrespectful. They think of as a solemn and sad occasion, not a to pose the dead as if they were . Fans feel it helps them remember the dead they were when they were alive.