Why Did Victorians Wear Black for So Long After Someone Died?

Why Did Victorians Wear Black for So Long After Someone Died?

Today I want to take a look at why mourning clothes were so important to Victorians. If you had lived during Queen Victoria's reign, losing a loved one did not just bring grief. Society expected you to show your sadness, sometimes for years.

The custom became especially common after Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, died in 1861. The Queen was, as you can expect, devastated and wore black for the remaining forty years of her life. Her example influenced millions of people all across Britain. It made long periods of mourning fashionable as well as socially expected.

Image info:

Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and his sisters

Date: 1835

The rules you followed depended on who had died. A widow was expected to wear full mourning for around two years, with the first year usually requiring plain, dull black clothing made from non-shiny fabrics such as crepe. Jewellery was usually limited to jet or pieces containing the hair of the person who had died. A widower often mourned for a much shorter period, usually around three months to a year, while children, parents, siblings and more distant relatives all had different recommended mourning periods.

Mourners could move into half mourning after a while. That meant that instead of wearing only black, they could wear colours like as purple, lavender, mauve, grey and white became acceptable. Purple was especially associated with half mourning because it symbolised dignity, remembrance and the gradual return to everyday life without suggesting that grief was gone.

Although many people genuinely wanted to honour the dead, there was a very strong social pressure. By wearing mourning clothes you showed respect for the deceased and also demonstrated that the family understood duty, reputation and proper behaviour. Failing to follow the expected customs could attract criticism.

Today, mourning is usually a deeper personal experience, but in Victorian Britain it was also to be something that was seen.

Do you think that these strict mourning traditions helped people to cope with grief, or do you think that they made an already difficult time even harder?