Christus surrexit, everyone!

While the rest of the world is already storing away their egg-and-bunny decor, we Catholics only just finished the Easter octave yesterday—and we still have all the time until Pentecost to keep celebrating. At Mass, the Gloria and the alleluias are back in full force, and the more exultant Vidi Aquam replaces the Asperges. You’ll also see the Paschal candle burning and white vestments and paraments in the sanctuary.

Like I did for Advent, I wanted to write a bit on the colors and symbols of Easter and how we can use them to deepen our Paschal joy—both in the liturgy and beyond it.

What are liturgical colors?

Before diving in, I’ll give an overview of the development and use of “liturgical colors.”1 In the earliest days of the Church, it seems that white was the universally accepted color for celebrating the Mass; this was the dominant standard from about the 4th century to the 9th. Other colors began to be slowly incorporated in different areas with no standardization in the next couple centuries. Pope Innocent III, writing in the 1190s before he became pope, listed four principal liturgical colors: white, red, black, and green. Violet was considered a (less preferable) shade of black.2 This was not a prescription but rather a description of the organic developments of liturgical colors throughout the Church. By the 16th century, however, aware of the need for standardization, Pope Pius V promulgated a new Missal with 5 prescribed colors: white, red, green, violet, and black.3

The Church uses different colors in her different seasons to deepen our understanding and observance of these times. In The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (1902), Fr. Nikolaus Gihr writes:

As in the Old, so also in the New Law there are different liturgical colors which impart to the vestments not only splendor, beauty, and variety but also a religious symbolical meaning. The rich, deep symbolism of the colors was the determining reason why the Church selected and prescribed various colors for the different feasts and seasons, as well as for special functions of the holy year.

Each color expresses some truth about the day or season in which it is worn; for instance, on the feast of any martyr, you will see the priest wearing red, which has a dual meaning: blood and royalty. Red vestments remind us that the saint we are commemorating died for Christ and has now received a heavenly reward.

Not only the clergy but also the altar and the sacred vessels should match the liturgical color of the day or season. For the clergy, this includes the maniple, stole, chasuble, dalmatic, and cope. The cincture may or may not match. For the altar, the antependium (altar frontal) and conopaeum (tabernacle veil—though a white veil may be used all-year “in poor churches”). For the vessels, the chalice veil and burse.

The laity in attendance at Mass or another celebration (like a procession) are in no way required to match the liturgical color! However, I’ve found that when I take the time to think about the day’s liturgical color and try to match it, it really deepens my experience of that feast.

What is the color for Easter?

The color prescribed for this season is white, albus. In practice, this can range from a warm-toned cream to ivory to true white. It very often involves more ornamentation, pattern, and embroidery than the other liturgical colors—fitting for the most festal color in the Church’s palette.

We read in all four Gospels that an angel (or two angels) appears at the empty tomb on the morning of the Resurrection in white garments:

Matthew: An angel of the Lord descended from heaven and same and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow (τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτοῦ λευκὸν ὡς χιών).

Mark: And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe (περιβεβλημένον στολὴν λευκήν), and they were amazed.

Luke: While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel (ἐν ἐσθῆτι ἀστραπτούσῃ)…

John: And she saw two angels in white (ἐν λευκοῖς), sitting where the body of Jesus had lain…4

We also know from the Gospels that Christ was shrouded in fine, bleached linen when He was buried and that those cloths were left in the tomb when He rose and that the disciples came to the tomb just as dawn was beginning and the world was flooding with new light.5 The color of Easter is meant to be bright, radiant, heavenly. The variations of white that we see in vestments are a reflection of different aspects of this brightness: some are snow-white, others like linen, others like the early rays of sunrise.

It’s interesting to note that the color white is actually prescribed in a way during all the Church’s seasons, not just Easter. If you have ever been a sacristan or server, or if you watch from the pews with any degree of attention, you will have noticed that the priest wears certain white vestments at every Mass, that the corporal, pall, and purificator are always white linen, and that the altar itself must be topped with white linen cloths (regardless of the color of the antepedium). Even at a Requiem Mass, you will see white vestments underneath the priest’s black ones.

Fr. Gihr explains here why the color white must appear in the liturgy through all the Church’s seasons:

Now, at the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, “the Lord inclines the heavens and comes down” upon the altar with His hosts, with all His love and bounty, with all His treasures and graces, in order to make a heaven of our poor earth; the celebration of this celestial sacrifice the priest should always perform with angelic purity and joyfulness. And in order to signify this, the white color is never to be entirely wanting at the altar, some parts at least of the priestly vestments (the amice and alb) must always be white. At certain times, for particular reasons, the entire robing of the priest and chalice must be white. This is generally prescribed on those feasts and days when the characteristics of heavenly purity, joy and glory are to be prominently represented and expressed.

During Easter, you might also see another liturgical color— the oft-misunderstood gold. Technically, yellow and gold-colored vestments are prohibited altogether; there is, however, an exception is made for vestments that are woven entirely or predominantly from pure gold.6 Vestments made of true “cloth of gold” are permissible substitutes for white, red, or green vestments. They are frequently seen during Easter and Christmas, when the solemnity of the occasion merits such a precious garment.

What does white symbolize in Easter?

Fr. Gihr sums up the three main meanings of the color white in the quote above: purity, joy, and glory.

White symbolizes purity and innocence. This is why those who are baptized wear white garments, as they are being washed from sin, and why a bride wears white on her wedding day. The saints in heaven, having been purified, are portrayed in white as well.7 We can think also of Christ, the Paschal Lamb, the pure and spotless victim now exalted. In the Paschal sequence we hear: “Agnus redemit oves: Christus innocens Patri reconciliavit peccatores” (the Lamb hath redeemed the sheep: the innocent Christ hath reconciled the sinners to the Father).

White also symbolizes joy—not a mere passing feeling of happiness, but a much deeper joy and confidence and festivity. It represents a kind of clarity, like how a bright light brings clarity to all the corners of a room, as we come to see the cause of our joy—the Lord’s conquest of death—more clearly during the Easter season. After Mary Magdalene and the other Mary see the radiant angel at the tomb and hear his tidings, they depart “with fear and great joy,”8 because they have been enlightened to Christ’s resurrection and all it implies for them.

Finally, white symbolizes glory. This meaning is most easily identifiable (at least to me) because we see it all throughout the Bible. When Christ is transfigured on Mount Tabor, His garments become “white as light;” when the Lord draws near to Israel in the Old Testament, the image of a cloud is often used.9 After Moses faces the glory of the Lord to receive the 10 Commandments, the skin of his face becomes so radiant that he must wear veil.10 Angels appear in white garments with shining faces as a reflection of this same glory of the Lord. From the prologue of John’s Gospel, which we hear at the end of every Mass, we know that Christ is “the true light that enlightens every man” and full of “glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”11

I’ll conclude with a quote from Fr. Gihr because I really can’t phrase it any better myself:

The white color of the vestments admonishes the faithful to appear in the house of God clad with the bright garment of grace and purity, to assist at divine worship with heartfelt joy and gratitude; for it is meet to praise God with holy joy and to render Him thanks for the wonderful light of truth and grace unto which He has called us, and for the greatness and glory of the Redemption which has fallen to our share.