Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1882 — Emblems of Mourning. [ARTICLE]

Emblems of Mourning.

“I trust that black will not always remain an emblem of mourning in this couutrv,” said a dealer in mourning goods, who is a scholar as well as a merchant. “It is not a suitable emblem, but it implies and absence of light and a want of life, ‘which we certainly do not wish to convey as our conception of the state of our departed friends. Mourning is supposed to be the outward visible sign of inward grief. The noth n of a change, however, would not readily be received, for when one has to put' on the habiliments of woe, grief is too strong to be overcame by falhion ” “What other colors are used in mourning?” “In Italy women grieve in white garments and men iu brown. In China, white is worn by both sexes. Ia Turkey, Syria, Cappadocia and Armenia, celestial blue is the tint chosen; in Egypt yellowish-brown, the hue of the uead leaf, is deemed proper, and in Ethiopia, where men are black, grey is the emblem of mourning. All of these colors are symbols. White symbolizes purity, au attribute of our dead; the celestial blue that place of rest where happy souls are at peace; the yellow or dead leaf, tells that death is the end of all human ht»pe, and that man falls as the Autumn leaf; and gray whispers of the grave to „ which all return. The Lycians considered mourning for the dead an effeminate practice, and so when they grieved they put on women’s clothes as a symbol of weakness, aud as a shame to them ror a lack of manliness. The Thracians made a fekst when one of their loved ones died, and every method of joy and delight was employtd. This meant that tne dead had passed fr.orn a state of misery into one of never-ending felicity. Black was introduced as mourning by the Queen of Charles VIII. Btfore that the French Queens wore white mourning, and were known as the White Queens.”