On Death
The Victorians fetishised mourning, amassing a sombre array of customs and conventions (mourning clothes, elaborate funerals, black-edged stationery and so on) that - in a time of high mortality, especially amongst children - helped them get through frequent bereavements.
Today, we have dispensed with many of these trappings, aiming instead at an open, tolerant approach to the procedures surrounding death, allowing people to devise their own ways of mourning and memorialising their loved ones.
