Mourning (1) A particular dress or habit worn to signify grief on some melancholy occasion, particularly the death of friends, or of great public characters. The modes of mourning are various in various countries: as also are the colours that obtain for that end. In Europe the ordinary colour for mourning is black; in China, it is white; in Turkey, blue or violet; in Egypt, yellow; in Ethiopia, brown. Each people pretend to have their reasons for the particular colour of their mourning. White is supposed to denote purity; yellow, that death is the end of human hopes, as leaves when they fall, and flowers when they fade, become yellow; brown denotes the earth, whither the dead return; black, the privation of life, as being the privation of light; blue expresses the happiness which it is hoped the deceased enjoys; and purple or violet, sorrow on the one side, and hope on the other, as being a mixture of black and blue. For an account of the mourning of the Hebrews, see Leviticus 19:21: Jeremiah 16:6. Numbers 1:20-29: Deuteronomy 34:8.