Holy days - do you dress up more?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DarkLight
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DarkLight

Guest
I was just wondering - on special holy days, do you dress up more than normal for mass, or do you just wear typical sunday clothes? I know a lot of people in the U.S. pull out their best clothes for Easter sunday.
 
I dress the same. I am not wealthy and I don’t have an extensive wardrobe. I don’t even own a suit and tie or a tuxedo. But I wear business casual to Mass each time. Particularly because I am a Knight of Columbus, a choir member, and an altar server, I generally do not attend Mass as a person-in-pew but as a minister.
 
For me “buisness casual” is about as dressy as I get. I do tend to have something a litte more dressy for Christmas, usually a pretty sweater and a nice pair of slacks or a long skirt. And maybe a little more make-up and jewelry than usual, usual being no make-up at all and a chain with a a cross, a St. Ignatius Loyola & a St. Mary Magdalen medal. I don’t even wear my wedding ring everyday- no rings in the kitchen!! Have had one too many close calls, and a really bad burn (gold is an excellent heat conductor!;)) My chain can get tucked under my shirt.
DarkLight said:
I was just wondering - on special holy days, do you dress up more than normal for mass, or do you just wear typical sunday clothes? I know a lot of people in the U.S. pull out their best clothes for Easter sunday.
Click to expand...
 
When I was young my parents divorced. Consequently my mother had little money. She would not go to church because she felt she could not dress ‘appropriately’ and could not deal with ‘competing’ with other women.

So… It is really a rare day indeed when I ‘dress’ for church.

Just IMHO.
 
I used to because I thought it was good to dress up for Easter, but I kind of felt like it was a bit show offy. Its one thing to dress up to honor god, but its another to dress up just to show up other people.

Anyway, anymore I wear business casual for holy days. I wear jeans and a nice plaid shirt or polo most sundays
 
Nope. I have work/church clothes and I wear them whenever I go to work or church.

For Christmas, we go to 10pm Christmas Eve Mass. We generally don’t get home until midnight. So, I wear either pants or a longish skirt, the same sort of thing I normally wear.

For Easter, we attend the Vigil Mass. So it is three hours of Mass and again, we don’t get home until midnight. So, again, I wear either pants or a knee length skirt, the same sort of thing I normally wear.
 
Elizium23 said:
I dress the same. I am not wealthy and I don’t have an extensive wardrobe. I don’t even own a suit and tie or a tuxedo. But I wear business casual to Mass each time. Particularly because I am a Knight of Columbus, a choir member, and an altar server, I generally do not attend Mass as a person-in-pew but as a minister.
Click to expand...
Just being a person-in-pew is good…so is humility!
 
I dress the same. I have one black skirt and one pair of black slacks that I alternate for church. I have half a dozen “nice” tops that I wear with the slacks and skirt. I don’t have any other “dress clothes” since I wear uniforms at work and jeans for everyday.
 
Business casual for me. Like Elizium23 I have multiple roles in my parish, one of which has me working closely with the pastor on a daily basis and thus makes me a rather visible figure. I hasten to point out that I am not an **important **figure, just an omnipresent one.

Our parish has three churches so it’s a bit of a toss-up where he will celebrate Mass on Sundays and Holy Days as he has to divide his time evenly between them all (the Masses he does not celebrate on these days are handled by the parochial vicar or one of our five other priests). While most parishioners regularly attend Mass in one church, my duties mean I go where the pastor goes and since he is consistently dressed well—never saw a clerical shirt with French cuffs before I met him—I try to look polished and well-groomed at all times also. On Sundays and Holy Days this generally means a blouse, skirt and heels.

I tend to migrate to semi-formal attire for Christmas and Easter but retain my usual business casual for other Holy Days. If the archbishop and/or his auxiliary will be present for any occasion, I don full business dress.
 
wow, its nice reading about how people around the world dress to church. In my country the words ‘sunday best’ is an understatement. The general consensus is weekdays (holy days or not) anything goes but sundays is very dressy. Our traditional attires take central stage. People turn up in their very best nd i must admit it can be very distracting. But with the economic meltdown, things r changing nd u can now spot people in church dressed semi-casually. Holy days like Easter nd christmas however,no matter if its on a weekday or not are days u r bound to see every body in their best outfits.
 
Depends. I come to Church wearing a t-shirt. But by the time Liturgy starts, I’ll be wearing a cassock and stichar.
 
DarkLight said:
I was just wondering - on special holy days, do you dress up more than normal for mass, or do you just wear typical sunday clothes? I know a lot of people in the U.S. pull out their best clothes for Easter sunday.
Click to expand...
I try to on holy days if I’m able.
 
ConstantineTG said:
Depends. I come to Church wearing a t-shirt. But by the time Liturgy starts, I’ll be wearing a cassock and stichar.
Click to expand...
I’ll sometimes do the same if I need to. But I still try to dress up so I don’t stick out before and after Mass.
 
I’ll wear “business casual” on Easter & Christmas, other wise, depending on the season, it’s either jeans or shorts.
 
DarkLight said:
I was just wondering - on special holy days, do you dress up more than normal for mass, or do you just wear typical sunday clothes? I know a lot of people in the U.S. pull out their best clothes for Easter sunday.
Click to expand...
The way I look at it…

In general we dress according to the significance of what we are doing. This is true for secular events like work, leisure activities, and special occasions. It is the same thing for Mass. There are rankings for the significance of given Mass celebrations. While the laity is not clergy *required *to dress a certain way with certain colors, it makes sense that our dress would also be impacted by the calendar.

Most solemnities are of more or less the same rank as Sundays so the dress appropriate for them would be similar to that of Sundays. But certain solemnities, such as Easter, are of higher rank than other solemnities. To me that suggests that Easter calls for the laity dressing better than they would on a Sunday in Ordinary Time or a lower ranking solemnity.

At least in the USA, many Catholics fail to even attend Mass on solemnities/holy days when they occur during the week. Those that do are often rushing directly from work, school, meetings, children’s activities, and other regularly scheduled events so they are likely to be wearing whatever they had on first thing in the morning rather than what they would wear on a Sunday.
 
I attend Mass every Sunday and Holy Day. I dress up extra nice on Christmas and Easter because it’s tradition in my family.
 
I guess you could say that I sometimes dress up more for holy days since I will wear “pretty” printed scrub tops instead plain ones if I’m coming from work. Otherwise, what I wear to any Mass (Sunday, holy days, etc.) would be considered on the “casual” end of the “business casual” spectrum - my dark-colored jeans and a nice top / sweater and comfortable (non-sneakers) shoes.

My husband is the same as me (except that he’s not allowed to wear print scrub tops where he works). He “dresses up” by wearing his dark-colored jeans, a polo shirt and boots. I’m just thankful that he no longer wears AC/DC t-shirts to Mass…
 
My late dad (strictly a shirt and tie man it should be said) always said that we should remember that we are going to God’s house, so we should dress appropriately, but it’s not a fashion parade! -
just looked in the mirror and he was staring back at me -scarey!! lol
 
The only reason I want to be Protestant is the cool hats they wear. Now, they know going to service they should be dressing like they are attending a weding and a funeral!

I like dressing up on Sunday’s and find this is the only appropriate place in my life to look chic. It even gets my husband to step it up a notch in his dress attire. Our childreen also get to wear darling outfits. If a sacrament is supposed to make a grace visible on the outside, then I’d have to say many Catholics are missing the grace of grooming.
 
I wear a skirt or dress pant s and a nice blouse or sweater to Mass every Sunday or holy day. As someone else said I’m usually coming straight from work on holy days other than Christmas or Easter.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top