WHITE (and sometimes
GOLD
) is for Christmas, Easter (50 days!), feast/festival days, marriages, and funerals. (White is all light combined, the absence of color.)
PURPLE
is for
Advent
(usually purple but
sometimes
blue
- the color of Mary's robe! Some churches choose the lovely color
rose
for the third Sunday of Advent.) and
Lent
(always purple). Purple is a serious color, the color of royalty.
RED
is used during Holy Week, on the Day of Pentecost, and at ordinations - the bright color of fire, and spirit, and the presence of God.
GREEN
is the color of "Ordinary Time" - the hopeful color of growth and newness.
Ordinary Time is a time to live as a Christian in ordinary, daily life, renewing our faith and growing in all good ways. Sometimes ordinary can be
extraordinary!
Ordinary Time comes twice: 1) the Epiphany season - from the Monday after the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord through the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday; and 2) the time after the Day of Pentecost all the way through the Saturday before the First Sunday of Advent - that's the long "green season" of many, many weeks.
And that's the season of the Church year that we're in, right now!
Go green!
