Photos with dead relatives. Photos with the dead - scary traditions

The internet is full fake news and fake photos - such is it, the network world. Here they like to pull pictures out of context and write absolute nonsense about them. This is especially evident in the case of old post-mortem photographs, a very common tradition in Victorian times to take commemorative photographs of dead people, especially children. However, not all old photographs in which people look strange and motionless are actually posthumous.

Quite often, a photo of these plump twins comes up as an example of a post-mortem shot, because the babies are sitting motionless in front of a rather strange and sinister draped thing. This thing is their mother. At that time, to photograph restless children, they used such a technique as the “invisible mother”: in order to keep the child in front of the camera for a long time, the mother sat behind him, covered with a blanket.

Conclusion: there are live children in this photo.

In the picture we see two identically dressed twins, one of whom seems to have fallen asleep, and the second hugs him. It is clear that there was no need for a guy of his age to photograph sleeping and in such an awkward position - only if he is not actually dead.

It doesn't look like a post-mortem photo, and here's why. Firstly, the clothes on the father of the child do not correspond to mourning. Secondly, there is a mug with a baby spoon on the table behind, and a bib on the child - it is unlikely that a dead baby needs it. And thirdly, the child's hand grabbed the fabric of the clothes. And as for the fact that the parents in this photo do not look cheerful, people at that time in the pictures rarely smiled at all, it was not accepted.

Conclusion: the child just ate and fell asleep.

The young man is seated in a chair, his head tilted slightly to one side and appears to have been specially tied with a handkerchief to keep it in position. The eyes look blank and dead, but this effect could also be due to the flash. However, the position of the head and general posture suggest that this is a photograph of the deceased.

Conclusion: a real post-mortem photograph.

The boy in this picture is certainly alive, but his pet is most likely not. During the Victorian era, dogs were the most popular pets, the most beloved members of the family. And when a dog died, some owners took a post-mortem picture of it as a keepsake. Why is an animal worse than a human?

Conclusion: This is a posthumous photograph of a beloved dog.

Is this girl dead? Nothing like this. Pictured is Alexandra Kitchin (Axi), often photographed by none other than Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll (real name - Charles Dodgson) had many girl friends whom he photographed in different poses and even naked. It sounds terrifying to us, but for the people of the Victorian era it was not something terrible and was perceived as an art form, and not as sexual promiscuity. Little Axi grew up, got married and had six children.

Conclusion: No little girls were harmed in the making of this photo.

Well, who would believe that the Victorians were so frostbitten that they dress up a rotting corpse and take pictures next to it? And most importantly, even if it were a real picture, who needs this as a keepsake? Of course, this is, as they say, "a naked fake."

Conclusion: this is not a posthumous photograph, but someone's cruel joke.

Sunken eyes, a pale face, a calm and cold beauty, white lilies next to the body, taffeta drapery and shoulders adorned with faux fur ... Stop. The Victorians didn't have faux fur. This is a contemporary photo work called "Bridgette" from the Deviant Art website, and it looks haunting and dark.

Conclusion: A modern tribute to the art of post-mortem photography.

We see two beautiful girls. One stares intently into the lens, and the second sleeps peacefully. She is obviously dead. This is evidenced by a book placed under her back to keep the girl in the right position, and her hands neatly folded across her chest. And mainly this is evidenced by sadness in the eyes of her living sister.

Conclusion: this is a real post-mortem photograph.

This is a cute photo, the plot of which is clear without words. The Victorians loved gothic and everything supernatural, and they loved to make fun too, including with photographs. What we see here is a fake, but a fake of that time. Everything here is real, except for someone else's "severed" head.

Conclusion: For the Victorians, death was also an occasion for jokes.

They say about this photo that either the mother is dead in it (this is not true, the mother is holding the child to sit quietly), or a girl in a plaid dress - because her eyes allegedly look strange. The strangeness is easily explained by the impact of a bright flash - in those days it was much brighter than today, and literally blinded. And light blue, for example, the eyes in the pictures did not come out very well. Also, retouchers often corrected flaws with their eyes covered or blinded by the flash, and because of this, the picture could also look not quite natural. And why is the mother's face painted over? Well, perhaps someone did not like her and did not want to see her in the photo ... but this, of course, is speculation.

Conclusion: all people at the time of the picture were alive and well.

The Victorians used flowers extensively as symbols for one reason or another, and flowers next to the dead are, of course, a symbol. It is safe to say that the girl is dead, as she lies in bed fully dressed and someone's caring hands gave her the pose of a peacefully sleeping person. This is a solemn and touching photograph of a beloved child who left his loved ones too soon.

Conclusion: this is a real post-mortem photograph.

Here we see five kids, four of which are very similar in appearance, and the fifth - the smallest - looks pretty funny. By the way, it’s not a fact that this is a girl: in those days, both little girls and little girls were dressed up in dresses and grew curls for them. Why they stand so evenly and keep their hands at their sides is understandable: the adults told them to be quiet so as not to spoil the photo. Well, the baby (baby?) overdid it a little ...

Conclusion: children's group photo where everyone is alive.

The young men in the picture look motionless and stern, and many believe that the guy in the chair is dead, and his gloomy friends are standing nearby. But it's not. The young man sits on a chair so motionless and unnatural, because he clearly follows the instructions of the photographer not to move and look at one point. The trinity is clearly tired of posing, which is why they look so unhappy and tense. Well, smiling in Victorian photographs was not accepted, as we have already mentioned above.

Conclusion: This is not a post-mortem photograph.

Another good example photos with the "invisible mother". The mother, covered with a veil, holds the child so that he can be photographed. A dead child does not need to be held, he is already motionless. And this kid is clearly at a loss from what is happening and looks into the lens with disbelief.

Conclusion: this is a living child and everything is fine with him. And my mother is nearby, though for some reason she put on a veil

After the invention of the daguerreotype at the end of the 19th century, photography began to rapidly replace expensive and not very realistic painting. During the Victorian era, very strange customs developed around family photos. Perhaps the strangest of them was the tradition of taking photographs. dead people like alive.

For modern man this practice seems strange and frightening. We are afraid of any physical contact with the dead, we hide the fact of the death of loved ones from our children, fearing to injure their souls or scare them. And in general, the dead inspire us with horror and fear. But it was not always so.

Photos of dead people from the 19th century

In the 19th century, no one was afraid of the dead. They were buried next to the house in which they lived during their lifetime. An evening walk in the family cemetery did not inspire horror, but rather reassurance.

When a person died, he stayed in his house for some time. They talked to him as if he were alive, they touched him and dressed him, and this did not frighten anyone.

The fashion for post-mortem photographs, which began in the Victorian era, finally degenerated during the bloodiest war of the 20th century.

Photos of dead children from the 19th century

Child mortality in the 19th century was very high. Often post-mortem photos of children were the only reminder of the deceased child.

Quite often, living children were photographed together with dead sister or brother. To give realism to the dead, they opened their eyes. Blush and whitewash were actively used to give a lively look. A bouquet of fresh flowers was inserted into the hands. The dead were dressed in the best clothes.

Sometimes dead children were photographed as if they were asleep.

Posthumous photos of girls in a coffin

This boy, it would seem, just stands in the middle of the room and reluctantly poses for the photographer. In fact, he died a long time ago, and an invisible hand holds his head from under the curtain.

There was also a separate fashion to photograph the dead in a standing position. To do this, special metal holders were used, invisible in the photograph.
The photo shows a dead girl
This photo shows John O'Connor two years after his death. Five days later he was buried.

Another oddity of the Victorian era was.

History of posthumous photographs

When you think back to the Victorian era, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Maybe the romantic novels of the Bronte sisters and the sentimental ones of Charles Dickens, or maybe the tight ladies' corsets and even puritanism?

But it turns out that the era of the reign of Queen Victoria left us another legacy - the fashion for posthumous photographs of dead people, having learned about which, you will consider this period the darkest and most terrible in the history of mankind!

There are many reasons and versions for where the tradition of photographing the dead came from, and they are all closely intertwined ...

And to begin, perhaps, it is worth with the "cult of death." It is known that since the death of her husband, Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria has never taken off mourning. Moreover, even mandatory requirements appeared in everyday life - after the death of loved ones, women wore black clothes for another four years, and in the next four they could dress only in white, gray or purple colors. Men, on the other hand, had to wear a black armband on their sleeves for exactly a year.

The Victorian era is the period of the highest infant mortality, especially among newborns and young children. school age!

The posthumous photo of the child is all that remained in the memory of the parents.

And the creation of such "sentimental" souvenirs turned into an ordinary and soulless process - the dead children were dressed up, their eyes were painted and their cheeks blushed, they were laid on the knees of all family members, put or seated on a chair with their favorite toys.

The last girl in the train didn't just blink...

Well, isn't it noticeable that someone is holding this child on their lap?

And one of these sisters also does not rest ...

In general, the photographer did everything so that, as a result, the dead family member in the photo did not differ from the living ones!

One of the most important reasons for the spooky post-mortem photography in the Victorian era was the rise of the art of photography and the invention of the daguerreotype, which made photography accessible to those who couldn't afford to paint a portrait, well... an opportunity to commemorate the dead.

Just think, the price of one photo during this period was about $7, which is up to $200 in today's money. And is it possible that in life someone will be able to fork out so much for the sake of one frame? But the tribute to the deceased is sacred!

It's scary to talk about it, but the post-mortem photos were fashion and business at the same time. Photographers improved their skills in this direction tirelessly.

Believe it or not, they even invented a special tripod in order to capture the deceased standing or sitting in the frame!

And sometimes it was impossible to find a dead person in posthumous photos at all - and this is in complete absence photoshop ... Such pictures were identified only by special marks-symbols, like the hands of a clock stopped at the date of death, a broken stem of a flower or an inverted rose in the hands.

The heroine of this photo - 18-year-old Ann Davidson in the frame is already dead. It is known that she was hit by a train, and only her upper body remained unscathed. But the photographer easily coped with the task - in the printed photo, the girl, as if nothing had happened, sorts out white roses ...

The horror is that in post-mortem photographs next to a dead child or even an older family member, all the rest of the living always smile and look quite cheerful!

Haven't these parents realized that their child is dead yet?!?

Well, let's start from the beginning, shall we? What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Victorian era?

Potential dangers of photos of a deceased person

The image of a deceased person is to some extent connected with the World of the Dead. This clarification - "to one degree or another" - is very important, it reminds us that questions related to the Subtle World do not obey clear laws and formulas, as in our world. It is in our world that the application of a force of 1 newton to a body weighing 1 kg leads to a change in its speed per second by 1 meter per second. Newton's second law, F = m * a. Get a calculator and calculate. In the Subtle World everything is not so, everything is individual.

A photograph is an image, and much more qualitative and informative than any pencil scribbles. Accordingly, the connection between photography and a person is strong. By influencing a photograph, you can influence a person. And vice versa - changes in the state of a person affect the information parameters of the photograph.
If a person has passed away and is in the World of the Dead, then there is a connection between photography and this World. Thus, by contacting such a photograph, we are in contact with the World of the Dead. This can be dangerous. Therefore, it will be a very reckless decision to hang photographs on the walls, arrange them around the room.

We are very attentive to ensure that our information would not be perceived with fear, with negativity. So we want to say the following:

People who are too lazy to think and analyze information, after reading the previous paragraph, should be filled with fear and horror from the realization of the inevitability of the most terrible consequences of having once looked at a photograph deceased grandmother. People who have not lost the habit of thinking will ask an important question: “how dangerous is it,” and they will be absolutely right.

We cannot say in advance, without analysis, how dangerous all this is for this or that person, because we do not know in advance his energy-informational parameters, incl. we do not know the state of his own energy defenses. Knowing this is not a problem at all. But we don't know this in advance. Therefore, without analysis, we cannot answer the question "how dangerous is this for me." Let's put it this way: we know that it is harmful, but we cannot know in advance how much our own protective energy specific person can protect him from such dangers.

To illustrate what has been said, let's ask a trick question: what happens if a person sticks two fingers into a socket? Of course, the answer is “shock”, but this is not always true. Have you met people calmly twisting bare wires under a voltage of 220 volts?

If the impact on photography, even a very strong one, would necessarily lead to sad consequences for any person, then the same Hitler should have died back in the 30s from a huge number of curses addressed to him. Yes, and professional magicians also worked against him, but he didn’t die…

Therefore, all our stories about possible dangers should be taken not as “this is deadly, this is guaranteed to lead to bad consequences”, but as “this is dangerous, this weakens my energy, my protection. Better to avoid it." Everything is like in our favorite comparison with microbes. If you eat unwashed cherries in the market, you will not necessarily die. Perhaps the body can easily cope with the "eaten" microbes. Or maybe it won't work. So is it worth the risk unless it's absolutely necessary?

Let us now return to the question of photographs taken at the cemetery. The cemetery is a special place. It has a special connection with the World of the Dead. In some cemeteries it is more, in others it is less. Some graves have more, others have less. Either way, it's a nasty connection. So why bring it into the house?! Why keep it in your closet? Such photographs should simply be destroyed, because they are potentially dangerous. Even if you just came to the grave many years after the death of a person, you don’t need to be photographed there. This is inappropriate. Where better to store family photos taken in joyful moments in a bright place!

Photos from the funeral

Now about the photos from the funeral. We absolutely do not understand the desire of some to take photographs of the funeral. We cannot understand why this should be done. In order to revive your pain of loss every time? To relive again and again when the coffin is lowered into the grave? To repeatedly revive in oneself that feeling of universal emptiness and meaninglessness later life? Why is it necessary - to relive again and again negative emotions and thereby destroy own energy shatter the nervous system?

Women, and many men too, throw out their photos, in which they turned out unsuccessfully. And they do it right! There is absolutely no need to worry over and over again because of your own imperfection, which for some reason showed up too brightly in one or another photo. People keep the photos where they are happy, not the ones where they sob. And they do it right! There is absolutely no point in going through the same experiences that led to the sobs again.
So why take photos from the funeral, keep them, review them, again feel unbearable pain in the soul?

Perhaps someone will say uncertainly that this is necessary in order to preserve the memory of the deceased. What? Are photographs of the funeral needed to preserve the memory? Who will remain in the memory of people - a merry fellow and a joker, a caring husband, a master of golden hands, or a changed body in a coffin? Whose appearance should rise before your eyes - the waxy face of a corpse or a smiling living face?

We are now considering photos from the funeral from a purely emotional point of view. But there is also energy. Such photos are filled with very, very negative energies loss, grief, hysteria and irretrievable loss. And these photos are much more connected with the World of the Dead than just lifetime photos of a deceased person.

We don't see any reason to take photos at funerals. Maybe they are needed so that later we can closely examine who was wearing what? Well, except for that...

How to store photographs of the dead

We have already discussed the theoretical foundations, and therefore you already know that the photographs of the deceased have a connection with the World of the Dead. At the same time, in the archive of each family there are photographs of those who have already gone to the Other World. How to deal with them? Do they affect the living?

Of course they do. And this impact must be minimized. You can do this by following these simple rules:

The main rule: photographs of the deceased must be stored separately, and always in a black bag or black folder.This rule is easy to follow for single photographs, but what to do with group photos on which there are both dead and living?

There is an exit!
If these are photographs big size(20 * 25 cm, 13 * 18 cm), on which the living and the departed person are depicted side by side, it is better to separate them from each other with scissors. Note that large images are more dangerous than small ones, so the exposure window is larger.

If the photographs that contain the dead are small and there are a lot of people on them, then nothing can be cut out. Just put them in a black bag or black folder.
IMPORTANT! Make sure that the photos do not lie face down on top of each other. The “face to face” position is much more dangerous in terms of the possibility of negative impact.

As for the question of whether it is good when the photographs of the departed stand next to the photographs of the living, the answer is simple: the photographs of the departed should not stand (hang) in plain sight. They should be in black bags or folders.

Several times a year, for example, on the day of remembrance, it is quite appropriate to take out photographs of the departed, look through them, remember something, and then put them back in a black bag and put them away.

Can you burn photos?

The result of any action depends on what meaning we put into it. If you are a black magician and burn a photo, pronouncing all sorts of vile wishes and terrible programs, then this has its own meaning - negative. Black witchcraft, in a word.
If you simply burn photographs that show both the dead and the living, without adding any additional meaning to this process, then the situation is completely different. This will not harm you or the people in the photo. Turn the photo face down and treat the process like burning paper, not images of people. Only you need to burn not near your house, not on your site, and you do not need to stand under the smoke from photographs.

If you find it difficult to find a place to burn, then you can cut the photos into small pieces. Better do it with reverse side photo so as not to see the faces being cut. This will be additional insurance against accidental harm to them. And perceive the process as a simple cutting of meaningless paper ...

sourcehttp://www.volshebnik.by/uploads/files/foto1.html

What to do with the things of the deceased according to Orthodox traditions

There is a belief that the things of any person are saturated with his energy. That is why some religions prescribe to immediately get rid of things of the deceased, while others store them as a memory.

According to one source, in the Orthodox tradition, in order to complete the earthly affairs of the deceased, one should distribute his things to the poor within 40 days after death, asking them to remember the deceased and pray for his soul. This good deed will help the soul of the deceased in determining its future fate in the next world. And you yourself will be pleased to help those people who are not worried about stupid questions (for example: what to do if I'm ugly), but real problems: what to feed and what to dress your family with.

According to other sources, on the contrary, before the expiration of 40 days, you can not touch the things of the deceased, and they need to be distributed only after this time has passed.

It should be noted that there is no clear indication of the terms in the Bible, therefore, neither one nor the other case is a violation of biblical laws. You should not just throw away the things of the deceased - because they can still benefit someone!

Things of the deceased can be distributed to relatives, friends, acquaintances, neighbors. What is precious as a memory can be left in the house. And those things that were not useful to any of the acquaintances can be taken to the church, where they will be taken by those in need. There are also charitable points where they accept such things.

If a person died after a serious illness, many people advise burning his personal belongings (the clothes that he wore during his illness, the bed he slept on, dishes, etc.). But you won’t go into the forest to burn these things - it’s better to take them to the trash, because then they will burn them anyway.

As you can see for yourself, there is no clear answer to the question: what to do with the things of the deceased. There are only various conflicting opinions and recommendations. Therefore, there is only one advice: act as you see fit. If you want - leave things to yourself, if you want - give them to those who need them more than you. And if things are in poor condition, feel free to throw them away. Things are just things, and the memory of your dear person is not in them at all.

Loss of a loved one.

Their relatives, on which they depicted dead relatives in living poses.

For Human XXI centuries, such a tradition seems very scary. After all, we are afraid of any contact with world of the dead. Few people now once again agree to go to the cemetery. But before everything was completely different!

In those days, almost no one was afraid. Their graves were placed next to the house in which the deceased lived all their lives. In the evenings, people walked around family cemeteries - it calmed them down!

After the death of a person, they were not in a hurry to immediately take him out of the house, they talked to him just like with a living person, touched and changed clothes, and this did not frighten anyone.
Photo:

It is very unpleasant for an ordinary person of our time to view such collections of pictures. But for people XIX century, it was an extra opportunity to remember your beloved relative.

There are several explanations for why these photographs were taken.

First of all, it was fashionable. Many people just repeated after each other.

And also from photographs could be conducted family history. Rich people invited the photographer to all significant family events: the birth of children, holidays, weddings, and even when buying a house and a car. And the post-mortem picture, as it were, summed up the whole life.

If people didn't have the opportunity to photograph every event, they didn't. But take a picture of the last moment native person everyone tried! Because in those days family and everyone were taken more seriously.

For the same reason, people left curls and pieces of clothes of the dead as a keepsake.

In addition, when a person was asked about these photographs, he only remembered best moments the life of the deceased, and not about the agony before death!

Photo:

Us, modern people, such traditions seem somehow strange and frightening. But who knows what we would do if each of us did not have cameras and phones too! It is now that any person has a huge number of photographs that we try to parade around the world. But it is possible that someday this will seem a very unusual phenomenon.