Colors and alternate colors in the Church

01/21/2014 05:24
 

 The Dates of the Church Year, RCL   Year A , 2013-2014

Colors Season Dates Alternate
Dark Blue Blue Advent December 1-Dec 14 Blue Violet Purple
Pink* 3rd Wk of Advent Dec 15-Dec 21 Rose*
Dark Blue Blue Advent Dec 23 Blue Violet Purple
Dark Blue Blue Christmas Eve Dec 24 Blue Violet Purple
White Gold Christmas Dec 25-Jan 5 White Yellow
White Gold Epiphany Jan 6-11 White Yellow
Green After Epiphany Jan 12-Mar1 Lt. Green
White Gold Transfiguration Mar 2-4 White Yellow
Purple Ash Wednesday Mar 5 Gray
Purple* Ash Wed/Lent Mar 5-Apr 12 Red Violet*
Purple Palm Sunday Apr 13-16 Red**
Purple Maundy Thursday Apr 17 Red**
Purple Black Good Friday Apr 18 //// No Colors ////
Black Holy Saturday Apr 19 //// No Colors ////
White Gold Easter Apr 20-Apr 26 White Yellow
White Gold Eastertide Apr 27-May 28 Red**
White Gold Ascension Day May 29 [Sunday Jun 1] White Yellow
White Gold Eastertide May 30 [June 2]-Jun 7 Red*
Red Pentecost Sunday Jun 8-14 Red Gold
White Gold Trinity Sunday Jun 15-June 21 Red**
Green Ordinary Time June 22-Oct 31 Lt. Green Bronze
      Aqua Olive
Red** All Saints Day or Sunday Nov 1 [or the next Sunday, Nov 2] White Gold
Green Ordinary Time Nov 2 [3]-22 Lt. Green Bronze
      Aqua Olive
White Gold Christ the King Nov 23-29 White Yellow

 * In some churches, Pink or Rose is used the Fourth Sunday of Advent; in Catholic and Anglican traditions, Pink or Rose is also used the Third Sunday in Lent.

** In some churches, Red is used only on Pentecost Sunday and the following week.

Metallic Silver is sometimes used for, or with, white, especially at Easter and Christmas.  Likewise Metallic Gold can be used for gold or yellow.  While some traditions (Roman Catholic, for example) still use for purple for Advent, there is a trend to use a bluish violet for Advent and deep red violet for Lent.

In most traditions, the sanctuary cross is draped in color only during Lent (purple), Good Friday (black), and Easter (white).  Some churches leave white on the cross through Eastertide, drape the cross in red for Pentecost Sunday, and then leave the cross undraped until the beginning of Lent the next year.  Usually the cross is not decorated during Ordinary Time, nor during the Holy Days of Advent-Christmas-Epiphany both because the focus is not yet on the cross, and because the Greens of Advent and the other symbols of the Christmas season carry the visual message of that season.

Information courtesty of:

www.crivoice.org


 

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