Parallelism of Weddings and Wakes

	Wedding	Wake
Economic Purpose	Basically an Economic Union of two bank accounts	Basically consists of the pooling of all the family’s (conjugal and extended) resources to meet the expenses and provide the surviving family with money especially if the deceased is the only income earner
Costly	An ok wedding in the city would cost not less than 50,000 pesos (catering, cake, gown rental, car rental, tokens, etc.) Of course, you can have a wedding for a lesser cost but it would take the cooperation and skills of your entire clan to do the cooking, gown tailoring and other preparations.	A descent wake and burial would also cost not less than 50,000 pesos (casket not made out of mere thin wood with varnishing and a little design or trimmings, payment at the funeral home) A wake and burial could also cost less but the cheapest commercially produced casket costs 5,000 pesos and the family should have room in the house for the wake
Social Purpose	The ceremony and the reception draw family members, friends, workmates, neighbors, politicians and even strangers to join the festivities.	The wake and burial draw relatives, friends and foe, creditors, politicians, gamblers, and strangers to achieve their specific interests.
All About Appearances	Often (more than we dare to accept), weddings are done to save face, gain honor, merge with a wealthier family, or for convenience.	Wakes occur and often prolonged to gain as much money from hosting gambling operations or to draw pity and receive help.
Highly Commercialized	The heightened commercialization of weddings has made wedding businesses a booming sector.	Even wakes now have themes, much like a birthday party, and have become a show of economic status.
Highly Evolved Representations	Weddings no longer have a strong bearing on family building and God-centered lifestyle.	Wakes have transcended the purpose of grieving, acceptance and letting go to become interest-centered activities.
The point really is that these reflect how we have become as a society. If you do not agree with me then prove me wrong. I would very much like to know that what I have mentioned are the exceptions and not the general rules.