Thanks for this... Mostly a History enthusiast and partially morbid. :)
I took a death/dying class in college and they covered this time period in depth. Incredibly interesting.
Once had a funeral directors license. Part of the curriculum was a study of death, grief, and societal funeral practices. Interesting, although I was the last person to ever let a body down.
An old man who is lying in his upstairs death bed calls his son over to him.
“Moishe, am I smelling some of your momma’s wonderful fresh baked cookies?”
“Yes, papa, she’s in the kitchen taking them out of the oven.”
“Oy, go down stairs and tell momma to send up a cookie.”
“Yes, papa,” and the boy goes downstairs. He returns a moment later with no cookies.
“Moishe, why do you not have for me one of momma’s wonderful cookies?”
“Momma said the cookies are for AFTER the funeral.”
—————Myron Cohen
Interesting. Thanks for posting.
Queen Victoria made mourning and widowhood "trendy". She introduced the wearing of jet bead jewelry, the color mauve was invented as a clothing dye during her reign, and was often worn the second year of widowhood ( though not by her ) of mourning, instead of black, and whilst memento mori jewelry had been around for millennia, the wearing of a dead loved one's hair ( usually braided ) became quite the thing during the Victorian era!
I don't know if it was the custom, outside of the USA, but the newly use of photography was quite the rage ( of a posed dead loved one, to look as though he or she was still alive; alone, or with other family members ) was quite the BIG thing here in America, at that time.
Over here!
Not mentioned was that during that time, Europe was being psychologically ravaged by the White Plague (tuberculosis), that left the average person terrified, morbid, and depressed.
The disease could kill quickly or slowly. You could look healthy and drop dead; or you could be horribly crippled and in agony for months. The disease could afflict any organ in the body.
Some people became hyper-creative, others hyper-sexual. Many were confined to wheelchairs. Some went insane. Some looked like they were starving to death.
People became very afraid of things like premature burial, vampirism, ghouls, and other horrors.
And then there were all the other horrible diseases.
Interesting post... thanks.