FUNERAL WREATH: old custom
A funeral wreath on the door in the Victorian era let people that the family was in mourning for a loved one who had passed away. According to my late mother who seemed to adore Victorian-everything-including funerals, one must have a funeral wreath on the door if someone in the family had died in the past 12 months. When my Father-in-Law passed away, my husband and I bought a wreath and I replaced the red bow and put a black bow in memoriam on the wreath. I knew most people in the 1980’s would NOT HAVE A CLUE as to what a black bow on a Yuletide wreath meant.
I also knew I did not want to hear that “…it was a great shame to my whole family that I had put up a holiday wreath with the wrong bow.”
I mostly put on the black bow JUST TO KEEP MY MOTHER’S FRICKEN MOUTH SHUT, and I took a photo just so I could show it to her, if she ever started complaining about my husband’s family AGAIN.
--Lee Woodling, October 30, 2023