If it was known in advance that a person was terminally ill, often a painting would be commissioned to capture the final images of the loved one, and these might later be done up in domed frames, surrounded with elaborate floral twistings of their hair. By the 1880's, roses and carnations from the funeral wreath were preserved and kept under glass, as mentioned in Treasures of Use and Beauty, published in Windsor, Ontario in 1885: "Preserved or embalmed flowers are chiefly to consecrate the chamber of death as there are very few but love to keep some of the floral offerings to their cherished dead".
The actual length of mourning, depended on your relationship to the deceased. Widows were expected to wear full mourning for two years. In the case of children, parents mourned for one year, grandparents and siblings six months, aunts and uncles two months, great uncles and aunts six weeks, and first cousins four weeks. It it was a parent that was lost, children mourned for a full year.
During this time, most social engagements were cancelled, black was worn, masses read and candles lit.
If several deaths occur in the same family, tie a black ribbon to everything left alive that enters the house, even dogs and chickens. This will protect against deaths spreading further.
Never wear anything new to a funeral, especially shoes.
A person who transplants a cedar tree will die when the lower limbs of the tree reach the length of his coffin.
It is bad luck to meet a funeral procession head on. If you see one approching, turn around.
A person who sees thirteen white horses at the same time will soon be carried away in a hearse. (Or the Looney bin!)
Large drops of rain warn that there has just been a death.
Stop the clock in a death room or you will have bad luck.
To lock the door of your home after a funeral procession has left the house is bad luck.
If rain falls on a corpse, the deceased will go to heaven.
If you hear a clap of thunder following a burial it indicates that the soul of the departed has reached heaven.
