The Victorian era was
one of the most innovative times in world history. Ruled by Queen Victoria from
1837 till she died in 1901, it was a long period of peace, prosperity and
refined sensibility. Queen Victoria is remembered for her prosperous reign, but
she also had a reputation for having a strange fascination with death. She
influenced the society of that time greatly and thus for the Victorians death
rituals held great importance. The queen’s husband Prince Albert died suddenly
in 1861 from typhoid leading her way into deep mourning for the rest of her
life.
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| Queen Victoria in mourning clothes |
Having an influential
effect on the society, it became customary for families to go through elaborate
rituals to honor their dead.
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| Queen Victoria's entire mourning clothes |
The rituals included wearing mourning clothes,
having a lavish funeral, curtailing social behavior for a set a period of time
and erecting an ornate monument on the grave.
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| Queen Victoria's family in mourning clothes |
Mourning clothes
became a family’s outward display of their inner feelings. There were
complicated rules depending on the relationship with the deceased and the
amount of time required to mourn. There were journals or household manuals
which had copious instructions about appropriate mourning etiquette.
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| A Woman in full mourning attire |
Widows were expected
to wear full mourning attire for two years. The deepest mourning clothes were
to be black, symbolic of spiritual darkness.
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| A Woman mourning for her child |
For ‘deepest mourning’ widows wore
plain black dresses made of crepe, crinkled black silk or bombazine and when
they went out, they hid their faces beneath a black veil.
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| A woman in the initial stage of mourning |
Then after a year and a day came the ‘second
mourning’ where the crepe on their dresses was limited to decorative trimmings
and they could wear the black veil back revealing their faces.
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| Queen Victoria in ordinary mourning |
Another nine months
later they reached ‘ordinary mourning’ where the crepe was replaced with shiny
black silk trimmed with ribbons and jet.
The last stage of ‘half mourning’ lasted
for six months, and the widows could wear soft colors like lilac and grey. The
fans carried by the women also carried the solemnity of the mourning and
handkerchiefs were black bordered, the width of the borders varied depending on
the time of mourning.
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| Mourning Fan |
The mourning dress soon became high fashion that the
wealthy and royalty could afford. Commoners managed by dyeing their regular
garments.
During the mourning
period the jewelry that was allowed lacked any kind of showmanship. Deep black
colors were preferred. The brooch and earrings were made with designs that held
special meaning for the mourners, often a photo or a lock of hair belonging to
the deceased were woven into the jewelry used.
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| brooches with a lock of the deceased |
