Have you ever noticed that priests and deacons wear different colors of vestments? The liturgical calendar is the calendar used by the church. It consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in the entire year in the church. This determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed. These seasons and celebrations are also the basis for which color of vestment the priest will wear for the day.
The sense of sight, including color, plays an important role in Catholic worship. The colors of a priest’s vestments help the parish know that certain celebrations are at hand.
Green: The color of vestments used during ordinary time. (Ordinary time is the rest of the year that’s not the one of the other seasons — it’s still important, it just has an unexciting name.)
Purple or violet: Used during Advent and Lent, and along with white and black, these colors may also be used at Funeral Masses.
White and gold: Most appropriate for Christmas and Easter.
Red: For feasts of the Passion of Jesus and for the Holy Spirit, representing red tongues of fire, in addition to being worn for the feasts of martyred saints, who shed their red blood for Christ.
Rose: On the Third Sunday of Advent and the Fourth Sunday of Lent, the color rose may be optionally worn as a sign of anticipated joy.
