A few different cultures have their own tradition of professional mourners. The Greek ones dress in all black like a Johnny Cash tribute band and wail “fate songs,” or improvisations about the deceased’s life, lauding their accomplishments and probably skimming over indiscretions.
It’s a practice inspired by the soulful dirges sung by choirs in ancient Greek tragedies and also an even older tradition dating back to the eighth century BC. Mourning relatives improvised lamentations and tore their hair out (potentially explaining Greece’s high balding rate) as the bodies of their loved ones lay in the household.
The moirologists symbolically wash the body with wine or vinegar, clothe it in church garments, and sometimes place a coin on its forehead or between its teeth to fund the deceased’s journey across the River Styx, because annoying service charges are thousands of years old. Then, the lamentful moirologia, or fate singing, must continue unbroken until sundown, as an interruption can doom the souls of the departed and all those in attendance. As the sun sets, the women remain quiet until the following day—a tough ask for a gossip-prone culture.
Offerings and jeremiads are continued on specific dates over the following three years, while the deceased’s family is still mournfully attached to the body. This period concludes after three years: the family is released from their sorrowful bondage and the departed is inducted into the afterlife, as the body is exhumed from the cemetery and placed in a local ossuary or a mausoleum. Wow, that sounds like a whole lot for the family to have to suffer through. Suddenly, "sorry for your loss" and formaldehyde sandwiches doesn't sound so bad.