When someone dies in Argentina, the culture is different than in the United States. When a person dies, within a few hours a wake starts. It is a non-stop, roughly 20 hour wake (it can be less, depending on the family). For example, a sweet lady, 80 years old, died at 8:30 pm. Her body was prepared, arranged, and sent to a funeral home for the wake to begin at midnight. The body is placed in the casket without embalming fluid. People come and go throughout the vigil until the ceremony to place the lid on the casket. In this case the ceremony was at 4:30 pm. The family was there the whole night. She was transported at 5 pm and buried at 5:30 pm. The whole process is less than 24 hours because the body is slowly decomposing during this process. 
