Mourning

Mourning is in the simplest sense synonymous with grief over the death of someone.

Social customs

History in Western Europe

The custom of wearing unadorned black clothing for mourning dates back to the Middle Ages in Western Europe. Mourning could be worn for general as well as personal loss; after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Huguenots in France, Elizabeth I of England and her court are said to have dressed in full mourning to receive the French Ambassador.

Related Topics:
Middle Ages - Western Europe - St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre - Huguenot - France - Elizabeth I of England

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It was the custom of the Queens of France to wear white veils for mourning; this is the origin of the white mourning wardrobe created by Norman Hartnell for a later Queen Elizabeth in 1938.

Related Topics:
Norman Hartnell - Queen Elizabeth - 1938

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United Kingdom

In England, mourning behaviour developed into a complex set of rules, particularly among the upper classes. Women bore the greatest burden of these customs. They involved wearing heavy, concealing, black clothing, and the use of heavy veils of black crêpe. The entire ensemble was colloquially known as widow's weeds (from the Old English "Waed" meaning "garment").

Related Topics:
England - Class - Clothing - Veil - Old English

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Special caps and bonnets, usually in black or other dark colours, went with these ensembles. There was even special mourning jewelry, often made of jet. The wealthy could also wear cameos or lockets designed to hold a lock of hair or some similar relic of the deceased.

Related Topics:
Jewelry - Jet - Relic

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Widows were expected to wear special clothes to indicate that they were in mourning for up to four years after the death. To remove the costume earlier was thought disrespectful to the decedent, and if the widow was still young and attractive, sexually promiscuous. Those subject to the rules were slowly allowed to re-introduce conventional clothing at different time periods; stages were known by such terms as "full mourning", "half mourning", and similar terms.

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Friends, acquaintances and employees wore mourning to a greater or lesser degree depending on their relationship with the deceased. In general, servants wore black armbands when there had been a death in the household.

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Formal mourning culminated during the reign of Queen Victoria. Victoria herself may have had much to do with the practice, due to her long and conspicuous grief over the death of her husband, Prince Albert. Although fashions began to be more functional and less restrictive for the succeeding Edwardians, appropriate dress for men and women, including that for the period of mourning, was still strictly proscribed and rigidly adhered to.

Related Topics:
Queen Victoria - Albert - Edwardian

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The rules were gradually relaxed and acceptable practice for both sexes became to dress in dark colours for up to a year after a death in the family.

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State Mourning

United States

Mourning generally followed English forms. In the antebellum South, with social mores that rivaled those of England, mourning was just as strictly observed. In a sequence from the film Gone with the Wind, Scarlett O?Hara scandalizes the attendees at a ball by accepting Rhett Butler?s invitation to dance, despite the fact that she is in mourning for her late husband.

Related Topics:
Gone with the Wind - Ball

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The loss of the male head of the family had serious ramifications for American Indian widows; mourning among some tribes included the extreme act of cutting off of a finger

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Continental Europe

Africa

Bark cloth, a rough traditional fabric, was worn in some communities to denote that family members were in mourning. White garments are also used; following the advent of Christianity, black garments were worn, following European custom.

Related Topics:
Bark cloth - Fabric

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Asia