Lenten Vestment Colors

[ilyazhito]

Interested to see what your church does  for Lent, becuase most places do not have both black and purple.

[augustin717]

Back home they even used to cover the banners in black cloth. On Sunday they used some  shade of purple or red, otherwise black.

[scamandrius]

Of course, the color will change to blue during the holy day of Annunciation through its apodosis.

[Altar Server]

I voted purple during lent and black during holy week but my parish also does black for clean week

[genesisone]

Of course, the color will change to blue during the holy day of Annunciation through its apodosis.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Annunciation does not have an afterfeast.

[LBK]

The church I've been attending the past 15 years uses a purple and black brocade with gold trim for weekdays of Great Lent, deep red with gold trim for weekends, and black with silver trim for Holy Week. Of course, green is used for Palm Sunday, and blue for the Annunciation.

[Deacon Lance]

Of course, the color will change to blue during the holy day of Annunciation through its apodosis.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Annunciation does not have an afterfeast.

It has a Leavetaking the next day like the Nativity and Beheading of St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, and St. Demetrios.

[Deacon Lance]

Red all Lent and Holy Week.  Blue or White on Annunciation.  Black on Good Friday.

[genesisone]

Of course, the color will change to blue during the holy day of Annunciation through its apodosis.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Annunciation does not have an afterfeast.

It has a Leavetaking the next day like the Nativity and Beheading of St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, and St. Demetrios.

Thank you. My liturgical library is minimal - I can easily find that March 26 is the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, but other than that I find only this statement in The Festal Menaion, tr. Mother Mary and Archimandrite (sic) Kallistos Ware, p. 467: "The feast of the Annunciation closes either at Vespers on 25 March, or else on the day following, 26 March." Can you help me understand what this means?

[Deacon Lance]

Of course, the color will change to blue during the holy day of Annunciation through its apodosis.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Annunciation does not have an afterfeast.

It has a Leavetaking the next day like the Nativity and Beheading of St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, and St. Demetrios.

Thank you. My liturgical library is minimal - I can easily find that March 26 is the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, but other than that I find only this statement in The Festal Menaion, tr. Mother Mary and Archimandrite (sic) Kallistos Ware, p. 467: "The feast of the Annunciation closes either at Vespers on 25 March, or else on the day following, 26 March." Can you help me understand what this means?

On a Leavetaking the services of the day of the feast itself are repeated with only a few differences.  The Annunciation is a little different since it always falls during Lent.  If Monday through Friday a Vesperal Liturgy is held the Evening of Mar 25.  Mar 26 will see texts from the Triodion, for the Archangel Gabriel and the Annunciation combined.   

[genesisone]

Of course, the color will change to blue during the holy day of Annunciation through its apodosis.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Annunciation does not have an afterfeast.

It has a Leavetaking the next day like the Nativity and Beheading of St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, and St. Demetrios.

Thank you. My liturgical library is minimal - I can easily find that March 26 is the Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel, but other than that I find only this statement in The Festal Menaion, tr. Mother Mary and Archimandrite (sic) Kallistos Ware, p. 467: "The feast of the Annunciation closes either at Vespers on 25 March, or else on the day following, 26 March." Can you help me understand what this means?

On a Leavetaking the services of the day of the feast itself are repeated with only a few differences.  The Annunciation is a little different since it always falls during Lent.  If Monday through Friday a Vesperal Liturgy is held the Evening of Mar 25.  Mar 26 will see texts from the Triodion, for the Archangel Gabriel and the Annunciation combined.   

Thanks again. I think I have an idea of what you mean. It's one of those things that will make more sense when I actually see it played out than when it's described. My small mission parish is simply unable to offer all the services so there are gaps in my experiences. They will come in time, I know.

[Alpo]

IIRC, "Purple for all Lent, Black Holy week".

[PeterTheAleut]

Of course, the color will change to blue during the holy day of Annunciation through its apodosis.

Annunciation has an apodosis?

[Keble]

Actually, the correct answer in the west is "purple during lent, red in holy week, black or nothing on Good Friday."

[Νεκτάριος]

Actually, the correct answer in the west is "purple during lent, red in holy week, black or nothing on Good Friday."

I really don't want to see a priest wearing nothing. 

[ilyazhito]

The combination is the practice of Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral, LA. We would use purple for all weekday services, and serve in gold on the weekends. Holy Week would be black, until the changeover point on holy saturday. Annunciation would be blue, and palm sunday would be gold

[Nigula Qian Zishi]

I was surprised not to see Black on Lenten Weekdays and Purple on the Weekends be a choice. That is what some parishes do.

[Monk Vasyl]

I voted #3, but the 1st week of Great Lent for the Great Canon we use black.  The weekends will Purple.  The Pre-sanctified Liturgies will be in black and Lazarus Saturday will be gold or this year blue, and Palm/Willow Sunday gold or green.

[biro]

I enjoyed the chance to see the priest wearing red and gold this past Sunday. 

[Keble]

Actually, the correct answer in the west is "purple during lent, red in holy week, black or nothing on Good Friday."

I really don't want to see a priest wearing nothing. 

"Nothing" actually means "no vestments that come in colors". Most commonly cassock/surplice/tippet is worn, but sometimes one does see cassocks worn without any other vestment.

[Andrew21091]

Purple through Lent (with exception to the Annunciation) and Holy Week. No black at all since none of the clergy at my parish own black vestments nor do we have a set of black for altar servers so its purple.

[Benjamin the Red]

Until now, I never heard of wearing red during Lent and Holy Week. I'm glad it's a rare occurrence. I'm not a fan of the idea (I get crabby about my colors, forgive me!).

I voted purple. We don't have black vestments at all, so they are never worn. Annunciation is in blue, and Lazarus Saturday/Palm Sunday is in green. Also, the Sunday of the Cross is served with red vestments.

The church vestments, however, remain purple until Holy Saturday, when they are switched to white at the Liturgy.

[Nigula Qian Zishi]

Dark red can replace purple is the clergy have no purple vestments, and in some parts of Russia, bright red is worn for Pascha.

[Benjamin the Red]

Dark red can replace purple is the clergy have no purple vestments, and in some parts of Russia, bright red is worn for Pascha.

Yes, this I know and have seen done.

However, dark red being used instead of purple, I've always seen done only because there aren't purple vestments. I very much like the practice of wearing purple for Lent, and would feel odd if another color was worn in its place. I've actually grown fond of wearing red for the Nativity Fast and white for Nativity itself. Going to a western church and seeing purple during Advent would now feel very strange to me.

Bright red is worn for Pascha, and that's fine for them. However, I don't think it would make sense here in the U.S., as white is the "brightest" color to us culturally. Likewise, white would be a very bad choice in some Asian cultures, since they consider white a color of mourning.

[orthonorm]

I'll be waiting for the definitive answer in Fr. Thom's Vesting Part XIV.

[Dominika]

In my parish and in the metropolitan cathedral in Warsaw for diffrent days are used diverse colours of liturgical vestements: first week purple (but in previous years as I can remember there were black) and the rest days of Great Lent (I don't count Annuciation, then is used blue) also purple. I don't know about Lazarus Saturday, but rather gold, on Palm Sunday green, from Holy Monday to Holy Wednesday purple or red, Maunday Thursday red, Good Friday - Holy Saturday black, for Pascha white (and, for me an interesting custom, usual purple kamilavkas are changed for red ones).

[Punch]

Until now, I never heard of wearing red during Lent and Holy Week. I'm glad it's a rare occurrence. I'm not a fan of the idea (I get crabby about my colors, forgive me!).

Ah, vestment colors.  One more thing to get upset about at church 

[podkarpatska]

Until now, I never heard of wearing red during Lent and Holy Week. I'm glad it's a rare occurrence. I'm not a fan of the idea (I get crabby about my colors, forgive me!).

Ah, vestment colors.  One more thing to get upset about at church 

This is another Orthodox - 'It depends' answer. Oh well - just be glad you have a church and the priest has vestments.

Here is the MP yesterday in Black at a Pre-Sanctified in Moscow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w53zVMPiTM&feature=g-all&context=G2e11f68FAAAAAAAABAA

[username!]

I would wear purple vestments for lent if someone would generously donate me some.  I would wear green for pentecost if someone would donate them.  I would wear gold for Sundays if someone would donate them.  I would wear red on martyr days if someone would donate them.  I only have white because that's all I have. 

In an ideal world every rank of the clergy would have every possible colour for every occasion.  But when many parishes pay a priest 1500 dollars a month and he has three children to support how is he supposed to purchase a set of vestments that runs 800-2000 dollars per set?  That's why you don't always see every colour vestment in a church.

Richer churches get fancy and actually have altar cloths that match the priest's vestments, chalice covers, the aer, etc.. the servers.  But we're not all big suburban parishes.  Most of us are backwoods poor Slavic parishes that sling pierogies in order to get by.

[username!]

Dark red can replace purple is the clergy have no purple vestments, and in some parts of Russia, bright red is worn for Pascha.

St. Tikhon's Monastery wears red on pascha.  It's a Russian thing.


p.s. I realise that st. tikhon's isn't "russian."  just saying I've seen red on pascha before and that is where I've seen it.

[Benjamin the Red]

Until now, I never heard of wearing red during Lent and Holy Week. I'm glad it's a rare occurrence. I'm not a fan of the idea (I get crabby about my colors, forgive me!).

Ah, vestment colors.  One more thing to get upset about at church 

This is another Orthodox - 'It depends' answer. Oh well - just be glad you have a church and the priest has vestments.

Here is the MP yesterday in Black at a Pre-Sanctified in Moscow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w53zVMPiTM&feature=g-all&context=G2e11f68FAAAAAAAABAA

I wouldn't say it's something to be genuinely "upset" about. However, there are practices I like and ones I don't. It's an opinion...a preference. Nothing more.

Also, I've seen that video and love it. It's my understanding that it's common Russian tradition to wear black on the weekdays of Lent, and purple on the weekends. I like that, but I also see it as a bit superfluous. If a parish does that, great. If not, great. I'm indifferent.

Though, I do really like the tradition of Russian bishops swapping out their colored mantle for a black one that depicts the instruments of the Passion.

I would wear purple vestments for lent if someone would generously donate me some.  I would wear green for pentecost if someone would donate them.  I would wear gold for Sundays if someone would donate them.  I would wear red on martyr days if someone would donate them.  I only have white because that's all I have. 

In an ideal world every rank of the clergy would have every possible colour for every occasion.  But when many parishes pay a priest 1500 dollars a month and he has three children to support how is he supposed to purchase a set of vestments that runs 800-2000 dollars per set?  That's why you don't always see every colour vestment in a church.

Richer churches get fancy and actually have altar cloths that match the priest's vestments, chalice covers, the aer, etc.. the servers.  But we're not all big suburban parishes.  Most of us are backwoods poor Slavic parishes that sling pierogies in order to get by.

Yes, vestments are VERY expensive and I would never get flustered because such and such color isn't available. It's when "weird" (yes, that's very subjective, I know that!) colors are used for a cycle in spite of having the more traditional color available.

[Deacon Lance]

I am surprised that nobody has pointed out that both black and purple are a Latinization.  The Typicon only specifies dark and bright vestments.  Black was never used until it was insisted it be used for a Czar's funeral in the late 1800's and purple is fine as a dark color but insisting on it over another dark color is certainly in imitation of Roman usage.

[Benjamin the Red]

I am surprised that nobody has pointed out that both black and purple are a Latinization.  The Typicon only specifies dark and bright vestments.  Black was never used until it was insisted it be used for a Czar's funeral in the late 1800's and purple is fine as a dark color but insisting on it over another dark color is certainly in imitation of Roman usage.

Yep. Quite true. Call me a Latinizer, 'cuz I is one. 

[Nigula Qian Zishi]

Last night at the North Texas Pan-Orthodox Vespers, every priest and deacon wore purple.

[podkarpatska]

Last night at the North Texas Pan-Orthodox Vespers, every priest and deacon wore purple.

Our priest and deacon wore purple for Liturgy yesterday, but at the Binghamton Area Pan Orthodox Vespers, all clergy and deacons wore gold.

I don't think there is a 'rule' on this one!

[biro]

That makes me think, who defines what is 'dark' and what is 'bright'? Hmmm...

I do like to see different color vestments from time to time, though. Just my opinion.   

[Paisius]

Ah, vestment colors.  One more thing to get upset about at church 

Throw in some pews, an organ and an audible anaphora and we'll have a riot on our hands. 

[ilyazhito]

No, the vestment colors are merely local traditions

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