Liturgical Colors and What They Mean Through the Church Year

The color a priest wears at Mass tells you what the Church is celebrating. In short, the liturgical colors’ meaning is this: green for Ordinary Time and growth, violet for Advent and Lent, white or gold for Christmas, Easter and joyful feasts, red for the Holy Spirit and the martyrs, rose for two Sundays of rejoicing, and black as an option for funerals and Masses for the dead. Here’s what each color means, when you’ll see it, and how the colors move through the Church year.

Where you’ll see the colors

The liturgical color shows up most clearly on the priest’s outer vestment, the chasuble, and on the stole, the long band worn around the neck. A deacon’s stole and dalmatic match. Many parishes also change the cloth on the ambo (the reading stand) and other decorations with the season, so the whole church shifts with the calendar.

Liturgical colors meaning, color by color

Color	What it means	When you’ll see it
Green	Hope, life and growth	Ordinary Time
Violet (purple)	Penance, preparation and waiting	Advent and Lent; may be used at funerals
White	Joy, purity, glory and the Resurrection	Christmas and Easter seasons, feasts of the Lord, Mary, the angels and saints who were not martyrs, weddings, funerals in the US
Gold	Festive solemnity	In US dioceses, may be worn on more solemn days
Red	The fire of the Holy Spirit and the blood of the martyrs	Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Pentecost, feasts of apostles, evangelists and martyrs, often Confirmation
Rose	Joy breaking through a season of penance	May be worn on the Third Sunday of Advent and the Fourth Sunday of Lent
Black	Mourning and prayer for the dead	May be worn for funerals and Masses for the dead

The colors through the Church year

The Church year begins with Advent, not January 1. Following the colors is one of the easiest ways for a family to feel the rhythm of the year.

1. Advent (violet). Four Sundays of preparation before Christmas. On the Third Sunday, called Gaudete Sunday (from the Latin for “rejoice”), the priest may wear rose.
2. Christmas season (white). From Christmas through the Baptism of the Lord, including the feast of the Holy Family and the Epiphany.
3. Ordinary Time (green). The first stretch runs from the day after the Baptism of the Lord until Ash Wednesday. “Ordinary” comes from the word for counted, as in ordinal numbers, not from the idea of plain or unimportant.
4. Lent (violet). From Ash Wednesday until the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. The Fourth Sunday, Laetare Sunday (also “rejoice”), may be rose. Palm Sunday is red.
5. The Triduum. Holy Thursday evening is white, Good Friday is red, and the Easter Vigil bursts back into white.
6. Easter season (white). Fifty days of celebration, ending with Pentecost, which is red for the fire of the Holy Spirit.
7. Ordinary Time again (green). From the day after Pentecost until Advent. Feasts such as Trinity Sunday, the Body and Blood of Christ, and Christ the King, which closes the year, are white.

Throughout the year, individual feast days interrupt the season’s color. On the feast of an apostle, such as Sts. Peter and Paul, you’ll see red. On a feast of Mary, such as the Immaculate Conception on December 8, you’ll see white even in Advent. All Saints Day on November 1 is white.

Where practice varies

The basic colors come from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, but a few details depend on country, diocese and parish:

• Gold and silver. In US dioceses, finer vestments, including gold or silver, may be worn on more solemn occasions, even when they aren’t the color of the day.
• Rose. It’s permitted, not required. Some parishes don’t have rose vestments and simply stay in violet.
• Funerals. In the United States, white, violet or black may be used. White is widely used today, and black is still chosen in some parishes.
• Blue. You may hear of blue vestments for feasts of Mary. That’s a custom permitted in a few places outside the United States; it isn’t part of standard US practice.
• Ritual Masses. Weddings are usually white, and Confirmation is often celebrated in red, but the color can depend on the day.

If you notice something unexpected, it’s usually one of these options, and your parish can tell you more.

Using the colors at home and in class

The colors are one of the first things children notice at Mass, which makes them an easy way into the Church year.

• Play spot the color. As you walk into church, ask, “What color is Father wearing, and what season does that mean?” It takes ten seconds and it sticks.
• Match your prayer table. Change a small cloth on your family prayer table or classroom prayer corner with each season.
• Color a year wheel. Have kids draw a circle and color the seasons in order, starting with Advent.
• Hang a chart. Our Vestment Colors of the Church Year printable sets out each liturgical color, the seasons and days it belongs to, and what it signifies, all on one page. It comes in color and ink-friendly versions at US Letter or A4, though the color version is the one to print for this chart.

Advent is the start of the year and a perfect time to begin. Our Jesse Tree Advent Kit pairs well with the violet weeks, and our Advent activities for Catholic families have week-by-week ideas. To connect the colors to what happens at Mass itself, see the parts of the Mass explained for kids.

FAQ

What are the main liturgical colors?

Green, violet, white and red are the main colors. Rose, black and gold are used on certain days or occasions.

Why does the priest wear pink?

It’s called rose, and it may be worn on Gaudete Sunday in Advent and Laetare Sunday in Lent. It signals joy in the middle of a season of preparation.

What color is used for funerals in the Catholic Church?

In the United States, white, violet or black may be used. White, the color of Easter and the Resurrection, is widely used today.

What color is Ordinary Time and why?

Ordinary Time is green, a sign of hope and growth. The name comes from the counted, or ordinal, weeks, not from being plain.