Kilted at a Funeral

[gilmore]

Ack!

I had too much time on my hands tonight and looked around the internet for about an hour researching mourning tartans, wrote a somewhat exhaustive post on what I found, then when I tried to post it, not only couldn't I, but I couldn't retrieve or save the post either. It is lost in the ether.

At any rate, I discovered that mourning tartans came about in Victorian UK, were/are said to be usually black and white versions of clan tartans.

I found several black and white tartans here http://houseoftartan.com/house/reverse.asp
including 4 Stewart, 2 MacFee, Menzies, 2 Scott, Ogilvie, Erskine or Ramsay, MacFarlane, Clark and MacLeod.

It seems that the Menzies black and white tartan is sometimes worn as a general mourning tartan, or so it says at a Menzies website. I found nothing about a mauve mourning tartan, although interestingly there is a white and mauve Menzies tartan.

It is said that the Stewart mourning tartans can also be and are sometimes worn as general mourning tartans by anyone. Two are available as special weaves in 15 ounce 8 yard kilts at House of Tartan. http://houseoftartan.co.uk/scottish/itempg.asp There is a much less expensive Menzies black and white tartan in USA Kilts' casual kilts.

From http://www.tartans.scotland.net/tart...s/mourning.cfm

"Mourning Tartans

As the name implies these are used in connection with death, and are usually a design using a combination of black and white. As usually found, a few existing tartans are already suited to funerals but where specially created the rules appear to be to replace over checks with white whilst maintaining a black ground.

An example is Stewart Mourning, a late design based upon Royal Stewart but having a black ground and white over check. This design is found only in a very rare collection, Clan Originaux.

[However, I found two Stewart mourning tartans on that site, and four at a Stewart site.]

This is perhaps the most unnecessary type of tartan ever conceived. "

I don't know that I agree with that last bit. Although we no longer wear mourning for months or years, or even at all sometimes after the death of a loved one, for those who attend funerals ocassionally or more often, a black and white tartan might be handy. They are appropriate, conservative and tasteful.

BTW Cessna, one site mentioned that one of Queen Victoria's sons wore black Highland dress with kilt in memory of his father, Prince Albert.