Graveyard shift and Dead ringer:

Did you ever wonder where these sayings came from? Some of you may already know, but some may not.

In Victorian times, it was not uncommon to be worried about being buried alive. It did happen. They would hold a mirror under your nose and if you didn't have enough breath to make it steam up, you were considered dead. This could happen if you were in a coma. They had found people who had been buried alive when they were later dug up.

They didn't have all the modern items our doctors today have, so it did happen. People were not embalmed in those days either. One person who was so afraid of being buried alive was Mary Todd Lincoln, so she arranged to have a string tied to her finger with the other end tied to a bell above ground and someone to watch over her grave.

The graveyard shift was when someone was hired to sit in the cemetery at night to listen for any bell that might ring.

Dead ringer was the person who woke in their coffin and rang the bell to be rescued from their grave.

The most wealthy people built mausoleums and were never buried under ground just in case.

Another note is that people would have wakes in their homes with the dearly departed layed out in the parlor. The undertaker would have been the furniture maker in the town. He would come and measure the body and build the coffin to size.

The body would have been taken to the cemetery and the funeral would be at the grave.

The parlor in Victorian homes where always the best rooms in the house and the only room that guest would ever see when visiting. They would be wall papered, had the best furniture and would have had expensive drapery.

As the customs grew more elaborate, businesses sprung up offering to have the wake in style and out of the family home. Hence, the term funeral parlor.

Eventually, the funeral parlor took over all the arrangements from the grieving family. Before embalming became popular, they did put coins on the eyes so they would not open when someone was viewing the body and every now and then, someone would sit up in the coffin. The bodies could also moan from trapped air being forced through the vocal cords when this happened, leaving ladies fainting and men trembling.

Through the years, morticians have become so good at what they do, there are no fears about being buried alive and the family is well taken care of during their grief. Some funeral homes can trace their family involvement back to the Victorian era where it all began.

The art of hair weaving:

SEPIA JEWELRY- this item is painted with finely chopped hair and done in sepia tones- most were done as landscapes

braided hair inside of a brooch- this would have been a mourning piece- note the black stones surrounding it

examples of hair weaving patterns

patterns for TABLE WORK

PALETTE WORK- this was done by laying it flat and then gluing it onto a base

these could be made from many different family members

another brooch

this would have been worn in 1/2 morning

TABLE WORK- they used a table with a hole in the middle to hold and weigh the hair down. This is a watch fob, made of hair. The hair worked up to about 1/2 the length of the original hair.

a watch fog- store bought

The art of hair weaving has been traced back to 1600 Scandinavia and continued through the 1800's, being adopted as a mourning custom in Victorian times.

Both men and women exchanged locks of hair, since there were no photos yet in the 1600's, as remembrances. Even though photos were around in the 1800's, not all families had the opportunity to have them taken. Sometimes the only photo they would have of someone was one taken post mortem- or after they had died- either in the coffin or lying in bed.

Hair was an excellent item to keep since it did not decompose.
Today- the art of hair weaving is self taught since there are no schools that teach it. It can be done with human hair or horse hair as well.

NOTE- NOT ALL HAIR WEAVING IS A MOURNING PIECE

Victorian Funerals:

the hearse was elaborate and decorated in black with ostrich feathers


examples of headstones- weeping willow

this one is draped

and a draped urn- all signs of mourning

caskets were wood and the most expensive were carved

a vintage image of a funeral

Storebought mourning items:

a vintage ad
mourning pins
mourning jet buttons

mourning pins

mourning stationary- note the black border on the stationary and envelopes- the more black used the more expensive the item- so this would have been the cheapest form of stationary

In Victorian Times:

People of "society" were strictly bound and structured by the most elaborate rules and regulations of etiquette. Mourning customs were just one small part of the way they felt they had to conform to the rules or risk scandal by their peers.
Death preoccupied a majority of their time due to the fact that 3 out of every 20 children died before reaching a year old, the life expectancy then was 42 years of age and modern medicine was just in its infancy.
It was possible to "be in mourning" a good part of ones life, losing one relative before the mourning period was over from the one before.
Typical symbols that were used were draped urns, weeping willows, broken columns, and extinguished torches( I have found upside down torches as well.)
Just as people today throw large weddings, in society then, it was the custom to have the most elaborate funerals. Coffins went from plain wooden boxes to being intricately carved and hearse, along with the horses were elaborate and all black, except for infant funerals. For the death of a baby, they used white accents. The normally black ostrich plumes would be white with a white casket and the mourners would wear white gloves. Horses were even dyed black if they weren't black naturally.
Those of means could also hire "professional mourners" called "mutes", who would walk the in the procession from the house to the grave.

Mourning Time Frames:

Losing a spouse-
full mourning- 1 year
1/2 mourning- 6 months

Parents losing a child or child losing a parent-
full mourning- 9 months
1/2 mourning- 3 months

Losing a sibling-
full mourning- 3 months
1/2 mourning- 3 months

Losing an aunt, uncle, cousin, in-law and other relatives-
full mourning- 6 weeks- 3 months

More Victorian Mourning Clothes:

a cape- in silk and with lace- would have been used for 1/2 mourning
a fan
a bonnet for 1/2 mourning
both dresses are for 1/2 mourning- but this one could have been used for full mourning without the collar

Victorian Mourning Customs:

Proper Victorian etiquette required men to wear black suits and black arm bands. Women wore black dresses of crepe the first year or in deep mourning and could change to silk in 1/2 mourning which lasted another 6 months. This was the time period for the loss of a spouse.
Everything would have been in black and in deep mourning women wore no lace or jewelry.
Mourning clothes were the first ready to wear fashions sold in stores.

If you could not afford store bought mourning clothes, you bought black dye and in cast iron dye pots, you dyed your own clothes. When an event happened, like an outbreak of flu or cholera, the towns would smell from the death pots. They would do this in the yard over open fires.

When someone died in the home, the whole house went into mourning. Adults and children wore black while babies wore white with black ribbons.

The curtains were drawn, a black wreath on the door let visitors know that a death had occurred, the clocks were stopped at the time of death, the mirrors were covered so the dearly departed wouldn't become trapped in the reflection and the body was watched at all times until burial.