Colours of mourning and death

Empty red dresses hung in public places stand for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The idea comes from the REDress Project by the Metis artist Jaime Black.

At Akan funerals the close family wear red or red and black. Red shows the sharpest grief, and it is often worn when the death was sudden or the person young.

The silk shroud used to wrap the dead is called lambamena, which means red cloth, whatever its real colour. Families rewrap their ancestors in fresh ones at the famadihana ceremony.

On 30 September people wear orange shirts to remember the children sent to residential schools. Phyllis Webstad's new orange shirt was taken from her on her first day at one.

For the Day of the Dead, altars and graves are covered in orange marigolds, cempasuchil. Their colour and scent are said to guide the souls of the dead home.

On Day of the Dead altars, purple cut-paper banners and candles stand for mourning, alongside the orange of the flowers.

Purple is traditionally the colour a widow wears in mourning, so some people avoid it at happy events. It is also Saturday's colour in the weekday scheme.

Kuntunkuni is a dark brown mourning cloth of the Asante, dyed with tree bark. Adinkra cloth, stamped with symbols, was first made on such dark grounds for funerals.

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo wore white headscarves as they marched to demand news of children who disappeared under the dictatorship of 1976 to 1983.

White is the traditional colour of death and mourning. Families wore undyed white cloth at funerals, and condolence money is still given in white envelopes.

French queens once mourned in white, a custom called deuil blanc. Mary, Queen of Scots, was painted in white mourning after the death of her husband, Francis II.

Muslims, the majority, wrap the dead in a plain white shroud, the kafan. In Bali, Hindus wear white to temple ceremonies and cremations.

White is the Hindu colour of mourning. Families wear plain white to funerals, and in many communities widows traditionally wore white saris without ornament.

At a funeral the family wear white, and the children of the dead may shave their heads. White is the colour of mourning, as in much of the region.

At a traditional funeral the family wore pale, undyed hemp. Today mourners mostly wear black suits, but close relatives may still pin on a small white ribbon.

Sinhalese Buddhists wear white to the temple and to funerals. White flags and banners are strung along the road to a house where someone has died.

A widow traditionally wears white through the mourning period set by Islamic law, four months and ten days. Black is not the usual colour of grief here.

White is the colour of royal mourning. When a ruler dies, men wear a white band around the songkok, the black cap worn with Malay dress.

After a parent dies, a Hindu son traditionally shaves his head and wears only white for a year. Widows also wore white in many communities.

At a funeral the children and grandchildren of the dead wear white headbands and loose white clothes of rough cloth.

On 21 February, Language Martyrs' Day, people wear black badges and black and white clothes and walk barefoot to the Shaheed Minar to honour those killed in 1952.

Black is the usual colour of mourning. Widows in older generations wore it for a year, and the custom is called luto.

Under Philip II in the sixteenth century, plain black became the dress of the Spanish court and was copied across Europe. The deep black dye came from logwood shipped from the Americas.

After Prince Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria wore black for the rest of her life. Victorian widows were expected to wear full black for at least a year.

Close family wear black for at least forty days after a death, and often for a year. In villages many widows keep to black for the rest of their lives.

For Ashura and Arbaeen, millions of pilgrims walk to Karbala dressed in black, and black banners for Imam Husayn line the roads.

In Muharram, Shia Muslims wear black for Imam Husayn. Among clerics, a black turban marks a sayyid, a descendant of the Prophet, and others wear white.

Mourners wear plain black, called mofuku, to funerals, and men add a black tie. Condolence money goes in an envelope tied with black and white cord.

Families wear black to a wake and funeral, and some pin a small black ribbon to their clothes afterwards. Mourning dress traditionally ends at the first anniversary of the death.

In the month of Muharram, Shia Muslims dress in black to mourn the death of Husayn ibn Ali at Karbala, and black banners hang over the streets.

After Russian troops fired on crowds in Warsaw in 1861, women across Poland put on black dresses and black jewellery as a sign of national mourning. It lasted for years.

In fishing towns such as Nazare and in country villages, widows traditionally dressed in black for the rest of their lives. Fado singers perform in a black shawl.

Black is worn at funerals. After King Bhumibol died in 2016 much of the country dressed in black or white for a year of mourning.

Mourners wear black and wrap a large, rough woven mat, the ta'ovala, around the waist. The closer the relative, the bigger and more worn the mat.

In many Black communities a widow wears black clothes for up to a year after her husband's death, and puts them off at a family ceremony.

A gold star stands for a family member killed in military service. The custom began in the First World War, when families changed the blue star on a window banner to gold.