Watching on the Wake Eve

In notes made about 1678 and printed by Chambers, John Aubrey recorded that before the wake, the feast of a church’s dedication, people used to sit up all night fasting and praying. Captain Silas Taylor told him that when a new church was to be built, the builders watched through the vigil of the saint’s day and took the point where the sun rose next morning as east. Aubrey tried some churches himself and found they did face sunrise on their patron saint’s day.