Pop Quiz:  “If a unit of data gets shared enough times, it is considered true.”  This statement was made in response to people refusing to believe which of the following:

• a) In 2021, workers will have to pay back the 6.2% Social Security tax that President Trump’s Executive Order temporarily eliminated as of September 2, 2020. “I’d gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” – Wellington Wimpy, a character in the Popeye comic strip and cartoon show
• b) Nancy Pelosi’s hair salon incident was a set-up. “Does she or doesn’t she? Only her hairdresser knows for sure.” – Clairol advertising slogan from the mid-1960s
• c) There is no such thing as a Victorian lachrymatory. Or a Roman, Greek, or Egyptian one.

Although a is true according to financial advisor Ric Edelman (and who knows about b?), the correct response is c. Now, what the heck is a lachrymatory?

Supposedly, small glass or terra cotta containers found in old Egyptian, Roman, and Greek tombs were “verified” as having captured the tears of mourners. The bottles were then left with the deceased as a sign of honor.

So, the term lachrymatory for tear catcher (from the Latin for tear – “lacrima”) was hatched, and really, it sounds so touching, doesn’t it? In reality, scientists determined the vessels had held unguents and ointments used during the burial process.

And then there’s the fabrication of Victorian lachrymatories. You know those Victorians and their fancy-shmancy stuff. It is perfectly believable that they would have their own fragile, beautifully etched glass tear catchers. But the thin bottles actually held perfumes.

There are also fictional stories of Civil War wives collecting bounteous tears in bottles to show how much they missed their husbands.

Again, no proof of any tear collecting through the ages, except for one reference from the Bible. And the tear collector here is God himself. In Psalm 56, verse 8, David is lamenting his sorrows and prays, “You keep track of all my sorrows.  You have collected all my tears in your bottle.  You have recorded each one in your book.” Bible expert Matthew Henry says this verse means that God observes us with compassion and tender concern; he is afflicted in our afflictions and knows our souls in adversity.

ZaksAntiquities.com wants us to “invest in Biblical antiquities.” They stretch the story of Jesus praying in Gethsemane shortly before he was arrested. They suggest that when Jesus prays for God to “take this cup from me,” he was referring to a tear catcher.

Uh, I don’t think so.

Googling the phrase tear catchers for sale brings up over four million results. Over 285 are for sale on Etsy. There are a few offered on Amazon, one with a matching tray.

It seems as if the very idea of catching our tears is symbolic enough to make us WANT to believe it, despite not being based on any truth.

I remember sitting on a park bench with a dying friend. As I read aloud my eulogy of him that I would be delivering at his funeral a few months later, tears ran down his cheeks. I reached out and caught them with my fingertips.

It seems the most beautiful version of a tear catcher is when we perform the act of catching them for each other.

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Atlas Obscura article on tear catchers

Debunking the myth of Victorian tear catchers