Liturgical colors

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Chasuble, chalice veil and burse in the liturgical color red

Liturgical colors denote the colors of liturgical vestments , paraments and antependia that are used in certain liturgies in some churches.

The colors are intended to express and underline the character and mood of church rites. In the liturgy, the robes of those who served at the altar were initially adopted from the colors of the secular environment. Depending on the rank, these were mainly the different intensities and differently large areas of the shades of purple . Colored differentiations according to the time of the church year appeared in the Carolingian era and were made mandatory by the Council of Trent in the 16th century. The liturgical colors for vestments and vestments are used roughly equally today in the Roman Catholic and Old Catholic Churches , the Anglican Community and the Lutheran Churches.

Roman Catholic Church

The festivals in the annual cycle with the assigned liturgical colors in the Catholic Church
A violet Lenten cloth covers the cross in the Roman Catholic St. Ludgerus Church in Billerbeck

In the early days, up to the 12th century, the choice of garments was mainly based on their value. Accordingly, expensive robes were used for high celebrations. It was only later that people began to follow the symbolism of the colors. In the medieval church, the rites of the Holy Mass differed from region to region, and accordingly there were also different arrangements with regard to the liturgical color. The symbolism of the colors was also interpreted differently, in the Germanic area, for example, red was usually the festive color instead of white. After the Roman Missal was issued in 1570 in the course of the Council of Trent , however, the liturgy was increasingly standardized in favor of the Roman rite. In terms of location, however, the original color canon was retained beyond this period.

The following liturgical colors have been used in the Roman Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council (1962 to 1965) :

  • White, the color of light , is used at solemn feasts such as Christmas and Easter with the following feast days, the Epiphany , Maundy Thursday , Corpus Christi , All Saints' Day and Christ the King as well as other Lord's feasts , Marian feasts and the feasts of saints who are not martyrdom suffered, carried, and also for the festival of the archangels. Depending on the time or day in the church year, it is also the liturgical color for ordinations and the religious profession.
    Although the heraldic metal colors gold (more rarely the substitute color yellow ) and silver do not belong to the liturgical colors in their own right, they are to be understood as a particularly festive variant of the white color. In contrast to white (as the color of human perfection in the Christian sense), gold stands for the divine counterpart. So the white stands for participation in the divine rather than the divine itself and for this reason is the color of the angels. For the same reason, gold cannot be a liturgical color, since liturgy in a figurative sense stands for human participation in the presence of God and not for the essence of God himself.
  • Red, the color of blood , fire and symbol of the Holy Spirit , is worn on Pentecost , Palm Sunday , Good Friday , the Exaltation of the Cross , on the feasts of the martyrs and at Confirmation .
  • Green, the color of the renewing life and hope, is worn in the time of the year .
  • Violet, symbol of transition and transformation, is worn in the penance times before Easter ( Lent ) and Christmas ( Advent ), as an alternative to black also at the church funeral and at the commemoration of All Souls' Day . In the extraordinary form of the Roman rite , it is also intended for the communion celebration on Good Friday, for the mass celebration on Palm Sunday (but not for the palm procession) and for the first part of the Easter vigil up to the Gloria . It is also the color of the pre-fasting period from Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday .
  • Pink is the lightening of the color purple. It can only be worn on Sundays Gaudete (3rd Sunday in Advent) and Laetare (4th Lent Sunday) in order to emphasize the joyful character of the mid- fasting days halfway through the penance period.
  • Black is the color of mourning and is worn on All Souls' Day and at funerals , but it can be replaced with purple. In the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, black paraments are worn on Good Friday , just as before the liturgical reform.
  • Blue, the color of purity , used to be used for Marian feasts and locally also for Confessors' festivals (confessors are witnesses of faith who were not martyrs, such as St. Martin ); it was replaced by white. The Roman Missal of 1570 had declared blue and yellow paraments forbidden. In spite of this, blue robes are still used for Marian festivals in some areas , and in Spanish dioceses these are even mandatory. Blue was also known in the English rite of Sarum ( Salisbury ), where it replaced the violet in Advent. Blue can also stand for water, which in turn symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

The canon of colors applies to Holy Mass , the solemn performance of the Liturgy of the Hours and the celebration of the Word of God on the respective day and applies to chasuble , stole , cope , dalmatic and tunicella as well as the chalice veil and the bursa , previously also the manipula , pontifical gloves and pontifical footwear . The antependium , tabernacle mantle and cingulum could be of the liturgical color.

Old Catholic Church

In the Catholic Diocese of Old Catholics in Germany , the liturgical colors are used as follows:

  • White, the color of light, is used at solemn feasts such as Christmas and Easter with the following feast days, the Epiphany, Maundy Thursday, Corpus Christi, All Saints' Day and Christ the King as well as other Lord's feasts, Marian feasts and the feasts of saints who are not martyrdom suffered, carried, and also for the festival of the archangels. Depending on the time or day in the church year, it is also the liturgical color for ordinations. Although the heraldic metal colors gold and silver do not belong to the liturgical colors in their own right, they are to be understood as a particularly festive variant of the white color. In contrast to white (as the color of human perfection in the Christian sense), gold stands for the divine counterpart. So the white stands for participation in the divine rather than the divine itself and for this reason is the color of the angels. For the same reason, gold cannot be a liturgical color, since liturgy in a figurative sense stands for human participation in the presence of God and not for the essence of God himself.
  • Red, the color of blood, fire and symbol of the Holy Spirit, is worn on Pentecost, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, the Exaltation of the Cross, on the feasts of the martyrs and at Confirmation.
  • Green, the color of growth and hope, is worn on Sundays in the annual cycle and on the working days of the church year on which there is no feast of saints.
  • Violet, symbol of transition and transformation, is worn in the penance times before Easter (Lent) and Christmas (Advent), as an alternative to black also at the church funeral and at the commemoration of All Souls' Day.
  • Pink is the lightening of the color purple. It can only be worn on Sundays Gaudete (3rd Sunday in Advent) and Laetare (4th Lent Sunday) in order to emphasize the joyful character of the mid-fasting days halfway through the penance period.
  • Black is the color of mourning and is worn on All Souls' Day, at carmets and at funerals. However, it is often replaced with purple.

Protestant churches

The festivals in the annual cycle with the liturgical colors assigned to them in the evangelical church

The Lutheran churches, mostly also the United tradition, know liturgical colors. The antependia ( pulpit , altar and lectern hangings), stoles , chasubles and, if necessary, the collars of the cross bearer gowns are based on them. Churches and parishes of the Reformed tradition do not have liturgical colors.

  • Violet for the preparation time for high feasts of Christ (penance times: Advent time before Christmas , Passion time before Easter as well as the day of penance and prayer ). Furthermore, since 2019 Israel Sunday (10th Sunday after Trinity) now two propers: "Church and Israel" (green) and "Remembrance of the destruction of Jerusalem" (purple).
  • White for the high feasts of Christ and their feast times: Christmas and Sundays after the feast of Christ, Epiphany and since 2019 all the following Sundays up to the last Sunday after Epiphany, which always falls in the week of February 2 (the day Jesus is presented in the temple); Easter and Easter including Trinity (excluding Pentecost); also smaller festivals such as those referring to Christ: Mary's Days , St. John's Day on June 24th and St. Michaelmas on September 29th, as well as the last Sunday of the church year, when it is celebrated as a day of remembrance for those who have fallen asleep . White is also used for funerals. The pastor can wear a white stole. (For the difference in meaning between white and gold, see note on white / silver in the section on the Roman Catholic Church)
  • Red for Pentecost and for special festivals that have to do with the work of the Holy Spirit or the Church itself; also for memorial days of martyrs, exemplary Christians ( saints ) and church teachers as well as other memorial days ( Augsburg Confession June 25, Reformation Day October 31), but also for confirmations , church consecrations , ordinations and synodal meetings , memorial days of the evangelists and apostles, memorial day of the saints on November 1st.
  • Green for unembossed times: pre-Passion time before Ash Wednesday ; also for the Trinity time on the Sundays after Trinity (color of the rising seeds). Also thanksgiving.

In addition to the four main colors, there are also some liturgical secondary colors:

  • Black as the color of mourning at funerals or as an additional option for Good Friday .
  • Pink In a few Lutheran congregations, pink is displayed on Gaudete and Laetare Sundays . The Evangelical Michael Brotherhood recommends pink as the color of high Advent, i.e. in the period from December 17th to 24th.
  • Blue In North America and Scandinavia, blue is the alternative liturgical color for Advent among many Protestants. The Swedish Church has a tradition of using blue for Marian festivals. It is also the pre-fasting color.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nora Halbgebauer: polychrome Romanesque portals in Vienna and Lower Austria. Diploma thesis, volume 1. Vienna, August 2008
  2. ↑ Joseph Braun: The liturgical garb in the Occident and Orient: According to origin and development, use and symbolism. 2nd, improved edition. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) 1924 (reprographic reprint. Verlag Nova and Vetera, Bonn 2005), p. 38.
  3. ↑ Joseph Braun: The liturgical garb in the Occident and Orient: According to origin and development, use and symbolism. 2nd, improved edition. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) 1924 (reprographic reprint. Verlag Nova and Vetera, Bonn 2005), p. 40.