Meaning
A traditional wake ceremony of dancing, drumming, and singing held to mark a death — kin to dinki-mini, and found especially in western Jamaica. Through the nights leading up to the burial, the gerreh keeps the bereaved company and lifts the grief with music, movement, and games, the drumming and dancing helping to see the dead off and comfort the living. It is one of the old African-rooted death-rite traditions carried on in country districts.
Examples
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Dem keep a gerreh fi di dead all week.
They held a gerreh for the deceased all week.
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Di drumming at di gerreh go till mawnin.
The drumming at the gerreh went until morning.
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Gerreh an dinki-mini a old death dance.
Gerreh and dinki-mini are old death-wake dances.
Origin
Of African-derived origin; a death-wake dance-and-drumming ceremony. See [[dinki-mini]], [[nine-night]].
How it’s used
A traditional wake ceremony of dancing/drumming, kin to dinki-mini. See [[dinki-mini]], [[nine-night]].