Kria
Kria (literally: tearing) denotes the tearing or tearing of clothes as a Jewish mourning custom (Gen. 37.29; I. Sam. 4.12; II. Kings 5,8). The Kria consists of a crack the length of a span, which only occurs when close relatives die, namely when the parents die on the left side and in all the clothes one wears (except in the shirt and coat), when children die, Siblings and spouses on the right side of the upper garment is attached.
The ripping of the clothes
Usually after the kaddish one tears one's clothes in mourning for the dead. A member of the Chewra Kadisha steps up to each individual mourner and tears the hem of his robe, and then the mourner says a blessing ( Baruch dajan haemet , "Praise the just judge") and grabs the corner of the robe, pulling it down harder and in this way enlarges the crack by hand. A woman from the Chewra Kadisha performs the same act on the grieving women. If the father or mother has died, the robe is torn on the left side of the mourner and on the right of other relatives. A crack about the death of a father or mother is never mended, and the garment is not given away for mending after the shiva , the seven-day mourning week; however, the crack can be mended through the death of another relative.