[C19fan]

Article related to a new exhibit on Victorian/Edwardian mourning fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Too bad Edward Gorey’s not still alive to see that one!

[married21]

We have a family friend who dressed in black or dark blue for a year when her mother died. It was consistent with her chinese/filipino mourning traditions.

I think it’s a good idea. Americans expect people to shake off grief and move on quickly, but that’s not how it goes.

[The Great RJ]

Note the photos of FDR speaking before Congress on December 8, 1941. He is wearing a black arm band.

[Tax-chick]

The Victorian traditions, on the other hand, continued for months and even years past internment.

INTERMENT, blast it!

That said, the author makes some excellent points. Mourning rituals were arbitrary and regimented, but the customs provided a public structure everyone could work with, rather than leaving individuals in the lurch.

What does one owe, in terms of public "grief," to a boyfriend (or girlfriend) who dies?

[Yo-Yo]

I’m all for the Merry Widow.