Liturgical colours

Liturgical colours are colours of vestments and hangings within the context of Christian liturgy. The symbolism of violet, white, green, red, gold, black, rose, and other colours may serve to underline moods appropriate to a season of the liturgical year or may highlight a special occasion.

There is a distinction between the color of the vestments worn by the clergy and their choir dress, which with a few exceptions does not change with the liturgical seasons.

Roman Catholicism

Ordinary Form

Generally, in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, as reformed by Pope Paul VI, the following colours are used.

Colour	Obligatory Usage	Optional Usage
Green	*Ordinary Time
Violet	Advent Lent Holy Saturday Sacrament of Reconciliation	Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday) All Souls' Day Masses and offices for the dead
White	Season of Christmas from Christmas day to the Baptism of the Lord except for feasts of martyrs Easter season Holy Thursday Feasts of Our Lord Feasts of Our Lady Feasts of the Angels Feast of St. John the Apostle Nativity of St. John the Baptist Feast of All Saints Feasts of Non-martyred Saints Weddings
Red	Pentecost Palm Sunday Good Friday Feasts of the Holy Cross Feasts of the Apostles, except St. John Feasts of the Evangelists, except St. John Feasts of Martyred Saints Feast of the Holy Innocents Feasts consecrated to the Holy Spirit Confirmation Masses Masses of deceased Popes and Cardinals.
Rose		Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday) Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday)
Black		All Souls' Day Masses and offices for the dead

Vestments made from cloth of silver or cloth of gold may be used on days of special solemnity. Historically, silver was permitted as a substitute for white, and gold as a substitute for white, red, or green.

In addition to the general rules, there are some exceptions.

• White, in the United States, may be worn instead of violet or black at Funeral Masses expressing the hope of the Resurrection, especially in the funerals of children. This is also appropriate if white is traditionally the colour of mourning in a country, such as some Asian nations.
• Blue, a colour associated with the Virgin Mary, is allowed for the feast of the Immaculate Conception in some dioceses in Spain, Mexico and South America. In some places there is an unauthorized use of blue for all feasts of the Virgin Mary. In the Philippines because of the persistence of local priests in using this colour, the Vatican has granted it special usage in all Marian feasts, replacing white. Blue has also become an unauthorized but common colour in some places for the season of Advent, and in this case symbolizes expectation and hope - the blue of a new dawning day.

• White or cloth of gold may be worn from the 16th to the 24th December, when celebrating a traditional novena. This Spanish custom was abolished in the 1950s, but through an error, it was only abolished in Spain, and therefore remains licit and common in the Philippines. Further, if not enough vestments of the proper colour are available (particularly in concelebrations), white may always be substituted.

Extraordinary Form

The Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, also known as the Latin Mass, was promulgated by Pope St. Pius V and last revised by Pope John XXIII in 1962. It remains in use under the motu proprio entitled, Summorum Pontificum, issued by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. There are some small differences between the liturgical colour usages of the Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form.

The liturgical colour scheme of the Extraordinary From differs from that of the Ordinary Form in the following instances:

• Violet is worn on the following additional occasions:
  • Ember days
  • Rogation days
  • On the three Sundays before Lent, Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima
  • On the vigils of the Immaculate Conception, Christmas, Epiphany, and the Assumption
  • On the Vigil of Easter* and the Vigil of Pentecost, then changing to the colour of the feast for the Mass
  • On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week
  • At the Blessing of Candles on the Purification BVM
  • On the feast of the Holy Innocents
• Black is worn on the feast of All Souls and at all Requiem Masses.

*However, under the provisions of Summorum Pontificum, the private masses in the Extraordinary Form are not celebrated during the Easter Triduum.

Roman Rite before 1962

The liturgical colour scheme known in the Roman Rite became universal in Rome by the 12th century, and it is likely that the scheme had been widely used for centuries prior. In 1570, Pope Pius V promulgated the Roman Missal to most of the Latin Church, and the Roman liturgical colour scheme has changed little since that time.

In 1962, Pope John XXIII revised the Roman Missal and the liturgical calendar, abolishing all octaves except for Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost.

Before 1962:

• White or Gold was worn on days without a proper feast during the following octaves: Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, St. Joseph, Ascension, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart, Nativity of St. John the Baptist, Transfiguration, Assumption, All Saints, Immaculate Conception, and the Dedication of the church.
• Red was worn on the following additional occasions:
  • On Octave Day of the Holy Innocents
  • On days without a proper feast within the Octave of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

Before the Holy Week reforms of Pope Pius XII in 1956, violet was worn on Palm Sunday and black was worn on Good Friday.

Anglicanism

Many Anglican churches use the colours appointed in the Roman Rite. Others use the traditional colours associated with the Use of Sarum. In these churches, blue, rather than violet, is used during Advent and, especially among Anglo-Catholics, on Marian feasts. (Often, a deep or dark blue is used for Advent and a lighter shade of blue for Marian feasts.) Crimson is used during Holy Week, or throughout Passiontide (Passion Week and Holy Week). Some churches replace violet during Lent (except the week or weeks during which crimson is used) with a Lenten array consisting of unbleached muslin cloth (varying in colour but usually ranging from off-white to beige) or even common burlap (sackcloth) with accents of crimson or black. Other distinctions of colour exist, such as yellow for Doctors of the Church, but their use is now almost obsolete.

More traditional churches will use black on Good Friday and at requiem masses of adults. More commonly, White or Violet is often used for funerals and memorial services; white is always used at such services where a younger person has died. White is used at baptisms and weddings.

Table of Anglican Liturgical colours

Season or Day	Common Worship	Traditional Anglican
1st Sunday in Advent	Purple	Purple
2nd Sunday in Advent	Purple	Purple
3rd Sunday in Advent	Purple	Rose
4th Sunday in Advent	Purple	Purple
Christmas Day	White or Gold	White or Gold
1st Sunday of Christmas	White or Gold	White or Gold
Epiphany	White or Gold	White or Gold
1st Sunday of Epiphany	White or Gold	Green
2nd Sunday of Epiphany	White or Gold	Green
3rd Sunday of Epiphany	White or Gold	Green
4th Sunday of Epiphany	White or Gold	Green
5th Sunday of Epiphany	White or Gold	Green
Presentation	White or Gold	White or Gold
Septuagesima	Green	Purple
Sexagesima	Green	Purple
Quinquagesima	Green	Purple
Ash Wednesday	Purple or Unbleached linen	Purple
1st Sunday in Lent	Purple or Unbleached linen	Purple
2nd Sunday in Lent	Purple or Unbleached linen	Purple
3rd Sunday in Lent	Purple or Unbleached linen	Purple
4th Sunday in Lent	Purple or Unbleached linen	Rose
Passion Sunday	Purple or Unbleached linen	Purple
Palm Sunday	Red	Purple
Maundy Thursday	White	White
Good Friday	Bare	Black
Holy Saturday	Bare	Purple for Vigil, then White or Gold
Easter Day	White or Gold	White or Gold
1st Sunday in Easter	White	White or Gold
2nd Sunday in Easter	White	White or Gold
3rd Sunday in Easter	White	White or Gold
4th Sunday in Easter	White	White or Gold
5th Sunday in Easter	White	White or Gold
6th Sunday in Easter	White	White or Gold
Ascension Day	White or Gold	White or Gold
Whitsunday	Red	Red
Trinity Sunday	White	White or Gold
Sundays of Trinity	Green and pink	Green
4th to 1st Sunday before Advent	Red or Green	Green
All Saints' Day	White or Gold	White or Gold
All Souls' Day	Purple	Purple (or Black for Requiem Mass)
Remembrance Sunday	Red or Green	Purple (or Black for Requiem Mass)

Protestantism

Some Protestant churches, historically especially Lutherans and Methodists, and today many mainline Protestants, use a colour scheme similar to those used by Anglicans and Roman Catholics, although the practice is not universally followed. Some Protestant churches do not use liturgical colours at all.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, uses the same colour scheme as that of the Anglicans and their Scandinavian Lutheran counterparts, but with the use of gold only for the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday services, with Holy Week using scarlet in place of crimson – congregations lacking scarlet vestments use purple from Palm Sunday through Holy Wednesday and white for Maundy Thursday. Black, traditionally use by the Anglican Communion for Good Friday and funerals, was used by the ELCA only for Ash Wednesday, but effective with the new Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) book, which replaces the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW), black is no longer suggested for Ash Wednesday or Good Friday – purple may be used for Ash Wednesday and no colour for Good Friday. In addition, the ELW suggests that blue, the traditional colour for Advent (with purple being the alternate), be used for the Advent season, reflecting the traditional use of blue in the Scandinavian Lutheran churches.

Both the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), along with the United Methodist Church use a similar system, but with purple being the primary colour for both Advent and Lent (with blue being the alternate colour for Advent only), and the use of gold in place of white for both Christmas and Easter (in similar practice to the Roman Catholic Church). In the WELS, the use of red is also done during the Period of End Times, a period of the Church in regards to the teachings of the Book of Revelation, culminating in the creation of the New Jerusalem (corresponding to Christ the King in the ELCA). In all three churches, including the ELCA, red is also worn on the last Sunday of October, in celebration of the Reformation on October 31st, when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses onto the door of Whittenburg Cathedral.

The United Methodist Church, prior to the early-1990s, used red solely for Pentecost, even including the Sundays after Pentecost Sunday, with the use of green being reserved for the season of Kingdomtide, which usually lasted from late August/early September until Christ the King (the last Sunday in Kingdomtide). Since the publication of the 1992 Book of Worship, the UMC has followed the ELCA practice of wearing red only for Pentecost and Reformation Sundays and green for the rest of the Pentecost season.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has sanctioned the use of liturgical colours and promoted their use in the 1993 Book of Common Worship (although their use was also promoted in the church's annual Planning Calendars beginning in the 1980s). Advent and Lent are periods of preparation and repentance and are represented by the color purple. The feasts of Christmas Day and Christmastide, Epiphany Sunday, Baptism of the Lord Sunday, Transfiguration Sunday, Easter Season, Trinity Sunday, and Christ the King Sunday are represented by white. Green is the color for periods of Ordinary Time. Red is for Pentecost Sunday, but may also be used for ordinations, and church anniversaries. Red or purple is appropriate for Palm Sunday. During Holy Week, the church may use purple or remain bare (although a few churches will use black for Good Friday).

Similarly, the United Church of Christ includes indications of which liturgical colour to use for each Sunday in its annual calendar. The general Western pattern is followed, with either Purple or Blue recommended for Advent.

Orthodoxy and Eastern Catholicism

The Orthodox and Eastern Catholics do not have a universal system of colours, with the service-books of the Byzantine tradition only specifing "light" or "dark" vestments in the service books. In the Greek tradtion, maroon or burgundy are common for solemn feast days, and a wide variety of colours are used at other times, the most common of which are gold and white.

Slavic-use churches and others influenced by Western traditions have adopted a cycle of liturgical colours. The particulars may change from place to place, but generally:

• White is used for Pascha (in some areas bright red is used for Pascha), Nativity, Theophany, and other Great Feasts of the Lord
• Purple (or red) for Saturdays and Sundays during Great Lent
• Black for weekdays in Great Lent, and during Holy Week (except Holy Thursday)
• Green for Palm Sunday, Pentecost, feasts of the Holy Cross and "venerable" (monastic) saints
• Blue for feasts of the Theotokos
• Red for Holy Thursday, feasts of the Cross, John the Baptist, martyrs, and for every day of the Nativity Fast, Apostles' Fast and Dormition Fast (except during one of the Great Feasts)
• Gold is used as the default, when no other colour is called for. Churches dedicated to the Theotokos may use blue as a default.

Previously, under Western influence, black would often be used for funerals in the Slavic churches, as a sign of penance and mourning, but in the second half of the 20th century, the ancient white became more common, as a sign of the hope of the Resurrection.

The Coptic tradition is unusual, in not having any liturgical colours aside from white. While gold and silver are used at times, they remain in theory, variations of white.

References

• Ordo missae celebrandae et divini officii persolvendi secundum calendarium romanum generale pro anno liturgico 2005-2006, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005.

External links

• Christian Symbols, Crosses, Parament Colors; and their meanings
•  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Liturgical colours". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.