The meaning of the Crucifix being covered?

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During Advent our main Crucifix has been covered with a bluish purple cloth. What is the reason?
 
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buffalo:
During Advent our main Crucifix has been covered with a bluish purple cloth. What is the reason?
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	Q: Why are crosses and images covered during the last weeks of Lent? 		—  		D.K., Oakland, California 
	
	A: First of all, I would first like to recommend Monsignor Peter  		Elliott's excellent guide "Celebrations of the Liturgical Year"  		published by Ignatius Press in 2002. It is a very useful resource for  		all those involved in the practical aspects of liturgical planning. 
	
	The duration of such veiling varies from place to place. The custom in  		many places is to veil from before first vespers or the vigil Mass of  		the Fifth Sunday of Lent while others limit this veiling from after the  		Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday. 
	
	In some places images and statues are actually removed from the church  		and not simply veiled, especially after Holy Thursday. 
	
	Crosses are unveiled after the Good Friday ceremonies. All other images  		are unveiled shortly before the Mass of the Easter Vigil. 
	
	Neither the Stations of the Cross nor stained glass windows are ever  		veiled. 
	
	The bishops' conference may decide if the veiling during this period  		should be obligatory within its territory. 
	
	The veils are usually made of lightweight purple cloth without any  		decoration. 
	
	The custom of veiling the images during the last two weeks of Lent hails  		from the former liturgical calendar in which the Passion was read on the  		Fifth Sunday of Lent (hence called "Passion Sunday") as well as on Palm  		Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, and Good Friday. 
	
	For this reason the period following the Fifth Sunday of Lent was called  		Passiontide. A remnant of this custom is the obligatory use of the first  		Preface of the Lord's Passion during the Fifth Week of Lent. 
	
	As Monsignor Elliott remarks, "The custom of veiling crosses and images  		... has much to commend it in terms of religious psychology, because it  		helps us to concentrate on the great essentials of Christ's work of  		Redemption." 
	
	Although this is true, the historical origin of this practice lies  		elsewhere. It probably derives from a custom, noted in Germany from the  		ninth century, of extending a large cloth before the altar from the  		beginning of Lent. 
	
	This cloth, called the "Hungertuch" (hunger cloth), hid the altar  		entirely from the faithful during Lent and was not removed until during  		the reading of the Passion on Holy Wednesday at the words "the veil of  		the temple was rent in two." 
	
	Some authors say there was a practical reason for this practice insofar  		as the often-illiterate faithful needed a way to know it was Lent. 
	
	Others, however, maintain that it was a remnant of the ancient practice  		of public penance in which the penitents were ritually expelled from the  		church at the beginning of Lent. 
	
	After the ritual of public penance fell into disuse 		—  		but the entire congregation symbolically entered the order of penitents  		by receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday 		—  		it was no longer possible to expel them from the church. Rather, the  		altar or "Holy of Holies" was shielded from view until they were  		reconciled to God at Easter. 
	
	For analogous motives, later on in the Middle Ages, the images of  		crosses and saints were also covered from the start of Lent. 
	
	The rule of limiting this veiling to Passiontide came later and does not  		appear until the publication of the Bishops' Ceremonial of the 17th  		century. 
	
	After the Second Vatican Council there were moves to abolish all veiling  		of images, but the practice survived, although in a mitigated form.
 
Yes, but Buffalo asked why it happened during advent. Are you sure you didn’t mean lent? I’ve never heard of it happening during advent.
 
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buffalo:
During Advent our main Crucifix has been covered with a bluish purple cloth. What is the reason?
Click to expand...
The reason is that someone has had some very poor liturgucal training.

They are never covered during Advent.
The Liturgical rules call for the crucifix to be covered from Passion Sunday to Good Friday. (I believe) Anyway for only a few days at the end of Lent.
 
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pm1853:
Yes, but Buffalo asked why it happened during advent. Are you sure you didn’t mean lent? I’ve never heard of it happening during advent.
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Ooooo, sorry!
 
Yes, the Crucifix and the statue of Mary are covered right now in Advent.
 
I have never heard of anything like this. Anybody else got a clue?
 
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