For 40 days every Lenten season, purple linens adorn the altar, and priests don violet chasubles for Mass and Stations of the Cross services. Behind the practices, traditions and liturgies of Lent are a wealth of spiritual traditions and theological reasons for this 40-day spiritual journey that Catholics enter into as a period of fasting and penance to prepare to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord.
Royal Hue
While the Alleluia and Gloria may disappear after Ash Wednesday, the purple (violet is the preferred term) appears for altar cloths and vestments, as it “denotes affliction and melancholy” according to The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Father Bryce Sibley, a professor at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, has studied liturgical colors as a hobby. He shared that tradition commonly attributes the Church’s use of the color purple, as it is often associated with royalty and is also a spiritual symbol.
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