Every religion has their custom and culture for mourning death all over the world. While black is the color considered to be worn during the funeral, it cannot be declared as the universal color. Here are some of the different colors worn in different religions to mourn over someone’s death.
- Victoria in black: In the western countries black is worn as a symbol to mourn over somebody’s death since Roman times. However, the symbolism became more elaborate when Queen Victoria mourned the death of Prince Albert for almost 40 years. This is when it was prominently established for the Victorian widows to wear black attires for at least 2 years after their husbands died.
- Symbolism for rebirth –white: White Kopi or headgears are worn by the widows in Australia in between a time period of a week to 6 months. The Kopi is made up of white plaster and its thickness denotes the depth of their grief.
Also, the people of Eastern Asia wear white-colored clothes that signify rebirth and purity of the soul.
- Red signifies honor and patriotism: The color red beholds different meaning in different cultures. In China red color is completely forbidden to be worn to funerals as it is regarded as the color of happiness. While in Africa whenever there is a death the people wear red-colored dresses to mourn the bygone.
- The color of spirituality is purple: In Guatemala, the young Catholic girls and boys dress up in purple hoods and robes during Easter to mourn the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. Also, the people of Brazil consider it bad luck to wear a purple dress while not attending a funeral. In regions of Thailand, the widows wear purple-colored attires to mourn the death of their spouses.
- Gold symbolizes a journey to the afterlife: In the Egyptian Counties, the color gold was worn by the royals and the well-born who prepared for their journey to the afterlife. The burial chambers of Egypt have revealed that gold was the color for Royal mourning, as the Egyptians believed that after their kings and queens died they would be symbolized as deities.
- In Papua New Guinea –grey is their mourning color: The women of this region apply the grey colored clay on to their skins to mourn the death of their husband. In their culture, the widow starts removing the necklaces every day until the last loop, which lasts for about 9 months after the death of their spouse.