MOURNING, 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. White obtained formerly in Castile on the death of their princes. Herrera observes, that the last time it was used was in 1498, at the death of prince John. 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, in regard that 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 does enjoy; and purple or violet, sorrow on the one side, and hope on the other, as being a mixture of black and blue.