Quote Dally="Dally"Back in Victorian days I understand that public displays of personal grief were the norm. For exapmle, widows would wear black for a full year and would correrspond using black-edged paper. So, I guess that the stiff upper lip attitude may have come about via the carnage of WW1 - wouldn't want morale slipping due to millions pouring out their grief. That would have continued on to WW2 and beyond. For all but the oldest in our society WW2 has become a thing of history rather than personal experience. Nowadays, personal grief is supposed to be overcome with maybe a week off work or less (whereas the actual grief lasts much longer). So, maybe the outpourings of public grief for the well-known are an expression of suppressed private grief?'"
Back in Victorian times, grief was more or less a constant companion for most British families. Infant mortality was huge and life expectancy small. So you could say it wouldn't be worth changing out of the black garb as you would need to don it again pretty soon after.
As for all the weeping and wailing that goes on nowadays, I reckon it's down to the covert feminisation of all things masculine.
