Guess I should hire a few when my mother dies.

All I have to do is think about only having 2 hands while the world has so many kitties!

And that it's been around for A LONG TIME.

Thank you for this piece of information!

In Portugal we call them "carpideiras" (because they're usually women), people who traditionally were (are?) hired to mourn people during funeral proceedings.

In essence, you could (can?) pay people to look sad and cry during the mass preceding the funeral, during the funeral procession, and until the coffin is buried.

I assume in the olden days they were brought in so that the deceased person would be considered important. In a "Look how many people they touched! There are SO MANY people crying their eyes out because they're gone!" kind of way.