Unveiling the Creepy Victorian Death Traditions
The Victorians are known for their prudish and repressed behavior. But few are aware of their almost fanatical obsession with death, and no one was more fixated than the era's namesake Queen Victoria, ruler of England from 1837 to 1901.
She elaborately mourned the death of her husband, Prince
Albert, for 40 years, dressing in black every day and keeping their home
exactly as it was the day he died.
The Victorian period isn't exactly known for its "go with the flow" attitude about social convention. It's probably no surprise that death and mourning were not exempt from a set of strict rules of decorum.
Death was a common domestic fact of life for Victorians, so
they developed elaborate rituals to deal with it. Socially shamed individuals who didn't adhere
to these rigidly prescribed bereavement procedures.
Some of these customs, such as eating dinner after funerals
and placing flowers around the corpse of the deceased, remain in use today,
while others, some of them really strange, faded away with the passing of time.
The creepy bizzare victorian death traditions
Hi, welcome back to Mystery Hunter! In this article, we discuss the creepy Victorian death traditions—from eating cookies to wearing black for years, the living posed for photographs alongside the deceased.As photography wasn't invented until the middle of the 1800s, it was still rather expensive during the Victorian era. Many times people did not have the means to purchase joyful family photos like they can today.
Thus, they had to take advantage of photo opportunities by capturing something that was actually important in their life for posterity.
Saving a photo opportunity to snap a picture with a loved one who had passed
away, to eternally remember them, was one way to make the most of it.
Family members would raise the money after a loved one
passed away to have a photo shot with them. Frequently, this was the only image
they had of their now broken family.
Widows had to mourn for three to four years. Victorians continued to dress in mourning even after the funeral, particularly for women. It was a complex procedure that may last for years.
There were three separate stages of mourning for the morally
upright and respectable Victorian widow, and each one had to be followed before
a widow could go on with her life. The first, known as "deep
mourning," mandated that a widowed woman wear a black garment and
veil.
Sometimes referred to as widow's weeds, for a year and a day following her husband's passing. The subsequent stage, known as "second mourning," lasted another 9 to 12 months.
She was allowed to remove the veil during this time, although she was still required to dress mostly in black. The third and final stage lasted six months.
Women could wear bright attire with black embellishments during this time of grief, but nothing too garish. Even the deceased relatives, not only their spouses, might wear mourning attire for up to 2.5 years.
Given the high mortality rates, it was usual for people to spend a significant amount of their life in mourning attire. Manuals of mourning instruction were a necessity.
Fortunately, there were specifically written mourning
manuals. That would define all the regulations for those meticulous and devout
Victorian mourners so they didn't have to memorize them.
The emergence of companies focused on mourning traditions
was one of the many impacts of the Industrial Revolution on Victorian society.
As part of this, books containing instructions on how to
mourn properly were created and distributed. These volumes included chapters on
behavior, manners, eating, and clothes, among other topics.
Funerals:
Mourners sobbed into tear vials. One of the more extravagant practices from Victorian mourning customs is the use of tear vials. Sometimes known as lacrimatress, from the word "lacrima."As their name implies, they are actually little glass vials
with rubber or cork stoppers that are used to collect tears shed by mourners
during funeral rites.
Mourners would hold the vials up to their faces throughout
the wake and funeral to catch their tears.
These vials would be given to the family of the deceased after the service as a way to demonstrate how much they will be missed.
Tear vials were also very helpful in assisting a grieving family in determining the length of the suitable mourning period. Once all of the tears in the vials had dried up, mourning could end.
It was impossible to leave a dead body alone in the house.
Victorian conventions required that someone sit next to the deceased person's
body for the duration of the time it was displayed in the home.
There are a variety of explanations for this, one of which is the notion that it eased the dead's journey to the afterlife. The necessity to keep rats away from the body, to remain nearby in case the deceased wasn't quite dead.
And to greet anyone who traveled a long distance to pay their respects. Arrived at an odd hour were more useful justifications for this constant vigil.
Mirrors and paintings had to have black cloth coverings
For a variety of reasons, this posthumous procedure was
necessary. One, because shiny objects in all their unsuitable shininess were an
affront to the family in grief. Covering all shiny objects with black fabric
essentially plunged the house into mourning.
Also, the Victorians thought that the deceased may manifest
in mirrors and become trapped there, and some family members accompanied them
into the afterlife. So hiding them was a rather necessary precaution to avoid
that scenario.
They displayed the dead in their own parlors
They had not yet been used for services. Instead, the body
of the deceased was placed in a coffin, which was then on display in the parlor
of the residence. Neighbors and family members would come to say goodbye and
console bereaved family members, and some people would remain with the body,
keeping watch round the clock until it was interred.
Flowers were used to cover up the dead people's smell
Arsenic was still being used as a preservative at that time.
Therefore, fresh flowers were always needed around the body to cover the foul
smell of a body decaying in the living room of its previous home.
Since there were no air conditioners available at the time,
a summer wake required the fragrance service that flowers provide. Flowers no
longer fulfill the dual role of the Victorian era but are still connected with
funerals as a sign of respect.
Funeral jewelry was weird
Jewelry served as a method to literally keep the deceased
close to you. Before death photos became popular, a common component of funeral
jewelry was hair from the deceased. Sometimes curled under a crystal in a ring,
braided into a necklace, or set in a locket.
White enamel indicated that the deceased was an unmarried,
virginal woman, while pearls represented the loss of a child. These and other
special meanings were attached to the gems and metals used in mourning jewelry.
Superstitions:
This was done to avoid another member of the family
succumbing to death. The dead had to be carried out of the house feet first to
prevent the ghost of the deceased from becoming imprisoned in the house. Glass
windows and mirrors were covered with fabric.
Because it was thought that if you saw yourself in a mirror
at a house where someone had recently died, you might be next. Somewhat
creepily, Victorians turned family photographs face down to protect family and
friends from possession by the spirit of the dead.
Burial customs:
While grave markers had been more simplistic during the
Victorian era, they became much more elaborate. Today, we shy away from talking
or even thinking about death. In reality, we could learn something from the
Victorians.
It's okay to talk about and plan for death. The Victorians
didn't focus on death, but they accepted it as a reality and planned for it.
While their methods may seem strange to us today, the Victorians did understand
the value of celebrating a loved one's life and honoring their memory.
The living posed for photographs alongside the deceased, as
photography wasn't invented until the middle of the 1800s. It was still rather
expensive during the Victorian era, and many people did not have the means to
purchase joyful family photos like they can today.
Thus, they had to take advantage of photo opportunities by
capturing something that was actually important in their life for posterity.
Saving a photo opportunity to snap a picture with a loved one who has passed
away to eternally remember them was one way to make the most of it.
Family members would raise the money after a loved one
passed away to have a photo taken with them. Frequently, this was the only
image they had of their now broken family.
We hope you found this exploration of Victorian death traditions intriguing. Look forward to other interesting discoveries from us for you.
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