Traditions and Superstitions: In Mourning

Throughout the Victorian Era, Canadians were preoccupied with death; following the example of Queen Victoria; and it was customary for families to go through elaborate rituals to honour their dead.This included not only wearing special mourning clothes; but also having lavish and expensive funerals and erecting  ornate monuments on the graves.  It almost became more about the show of grief, than the grief itself.           This also led to the  new favourite passtime of creating souvenirs to commemorate those who had "passed over". Locks of hair were twisted and incorporated into jewelry, and montages that included everything from silver coffinlabels to photographs and preserved flowers; were done up in frames and displayed proudly as proof of your devotion. If it was known in advance that a person was terminally ill, often a painting would be commissioned to capture the final images of the loved one, and these might later be done up in domed frames, surrounded with elaborate floral twistings of their hair.  By the 1880's, roses and carnations from the funeral wreath were preserved and kept under glass, as mentioned in Treasures of Use and Beauty, published in Windsor, Ontario in 1885:  "Preserved or embalmed flowers are chiefly to consecrate the chamber of death as there are very few but love to keep some of the floral offerings to their cherished dead".

The actual length of mourning, depended on your relationship to the deceased. Widows were expectedto wear full mourning for two years. In the case of children, parents mourned for one year, grandparents and siblings six months, aunts and uncles two months, great uncles and aunts six weeks, and first cousins four weeks.  It it was a parent that was lost, children mourned for a full year. During this time, most social engagements were cancelled, black was worn, masses read and candles lit.              

A Few Strange Superstitions Associated with Death and Dying     If the deceased has lived a good life, flowers would bloom on his grave; but if he has been evil, only weeds would grow. If several deaths occur in the same family, tie a black ribbon to everything left alive that enters the house, even dogs and chicke......