Liturgical Colors in the East?

[Colt45ACP]

For many years my former Byzantine Catholic pastor (eternal memory) said that our tradition does not have defined liturgical colors as the Latin Rite does. Rather it has “light” and “dark” vestment colors per the official liturgical books. All we really ever saw was white or gold (“light”) and maroon/burgundy (“dark”.) He claimed the movement towards different colored vestments was largely a Latin Rite influence.

His replacement is spending a lot of vestments of all the different liturgical colors. Is that proper?

 

[Vico]

For many years my former Byzantine Catholic pastor (eternal memory) said that our tradition does not have defined liturgical colors as the Latin Rite does. Rather it has “light” and “dark” vestment colors per the official liturgical books. All we really ever saw was white or gold (“light”) and maroon/burgundy (“dark”.) He claimed the movement towards different colored vestments was largely a Latin Rite influence.

His replacement is spending a lot of vestments of all the different liturgical colors. Is that proper?

Light and dark can include colors. Red can be either light or dark. Byzantine is less restrictive than some others.

We are Byzantine and the priest uses black (Holy Friday), red (Lent), blue, green/gold, white.

 

[malphono]

Traditionally there are no “liturgical colors” in the East and Orient, beyond light and dark. But “light and dark” doesn’t necessarily mean white and black. In general, almost any color can be used, where such things as white, gold, silver, blue, and certain shades of green go in the “light” column, while such things as violet, black, and most shades of red go in the “dark” column. IOW, it’s somewhat fluid and common sense has a lot to do with which color is used. For example, blue is very common for commemorations of the Holy Virgin, while red is common for commemorations of martyrs. White or gold are common for feasts of the Lord, whereas burgundy or violet are common for penitential times.

 

[dzheremi]

I don’t know if this is a Coptic peculiarity, but I’ve noticed that our deacons have reversible badrasheel (the little sash that wraps around deacons’ shoulders and waists to keep their tunics in place) with red on one side and dark blue on the other. For normal days and feasts, they are kept on the red side, while for penitential days they are reversed to the blue side, so it seems like in our church red might be a “bright” color and blue a “dark” color…or we’re just really poor, since I’ve seen in other Coptic churches in other places deacons will actually have white badrasheel and other colored badrasheel for particular occasions, and actually change them as necessary, but both Coptic churches I’ve been to so far (in the same diocese) have the reversible badrasheel like I just mentioned, so I’m not sure what to think. In general I think these questions on coloring don’t come up very much, since there are only a few variations to begin with, and like Malphono says it’s mostly intuitive. (And, not quite a ‘color’ difference, but along the same lines, it tickled me a bit recently to see the extra-fancy mitre worn by the priest for the Resurrection liturgy on Easter Sunday, which had a super-‘glammed up’ picture of Christ on it with bright purple, white, and gold sparkly things covering our Savior’s robe…Egyptians… I don’t know if the visiting priest brought it with him from Egypt or what, but I don’t recall seeing that in past years. I guess when you’re celebrating the most important day of the year, you’re allowed to get a little crazy! )

 

[babochka]

For many years my former Byzantine Catholic pastor (eternal memory) said that our tradition does not have defined liturgical colors as the Latin Rite does. Rather it has “light” and “dark” vestment colors per the official liturgical books. All we really ever saw was white or gold (“light”) and maroon/burgundy (“dark”.) He claimed the movement towards different colored vestments was largely a Latin Rite influence.

His replacement is spending a lot of vestments of all the different liturgical colors. Is that proper?

My priest often refers to the “freedom of the east” when choosing liturgical colors. As others have mentioned, the basic colors are light and dark, but there are certain colors that are traditionally or typically used for such feasts. Blue is common for feasts of the Theotokos and green is common for Pentecost. Generally, our priest wears white/gold vestments when light is called for, but sometimes blue or green. When dark vestments are called for, he almost always wears a deep burgundy.

 

[angelic06]

The Roman Catholic priest (biritual Dominican, former EO friar) who serves our Ruthenian mission wears the same gold vestments throughout the year, including this past Pascha Sunday, though he did wear red vestments for Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. The servers wear gold vestments throughout the year but white westments during Pascha. During Liturgy of the Presanctified, they wore black collared shirts, pants, and shoes.

 

[Aramis]

byzantine color traditions vary, but white, skye, gold, yellow, are light, with skye being pretty much a marion festal color. dark blue, red, dark green, and black are dark. the association of particular colors with season varies by ethnic church.

 

[coptsoldier]

The syriac catholic, syro malabar and syro malankara churches have very colourful robes