| RELIGIOUS RITES |
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| 4 THE CONCEPT AND FORMS OF RITUAL |
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Religious dress
and vestments, broadly
understood, include a wide range of attire, accoutrements, and markings used in
religious rituals that may be
corporate, domestic, or personal in nature. They comprise types of coverings all
the way from the highly symbolic and ornamented eucharistic (Holy Communion)
vestments of Eastern Orthodox Christianity to tattooing, scarification, or body
painting of members of primitive (preliterate) societies. Some types of
religious dress may be used to distinguish the priestly from the lay members of
a religious group, or they may also be used to signify various orders or ranks
within a priesthood. Some religious communities may require that religious
personages (e.g., priests, monks,
nuns, shamans, priestesses, and others) garb themselves with appropriate types
of religious dress at all times, whereas other religious communities may only
request that religious dress be worn during rituals. (see also
religious symbolism) |
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In theocratic societies, such as Judaism
and Islam, religious sanctions
govern what may and may not be worn by members of the community; and religious
dress embraces not only what is worn by a prayer leader but also what is worn by
his congregation outside as well as inside a place of worship. In many
traditions, habits serve to
identify monastic groups. Indeed, in the latter case, the function of religious
dress is more akin to heraldry as a form of symbolic identification than to
liturgy, with its ritualistic symbolic motifs. (see also
theocracy, monasticism) |
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In a more restricted sense, religious
vestments articulate a liturgical language as part of a figurative idiom shared
with other religious symbols--e.g., icons
(images), statues, drama, music, and ritual. According to the richness of the
liturgical or ritual vocabulary employed, the more feasibly can a symbology of
vesture be attempted. This is especially the case with Eastern
Orthodoxy, whose predilection for symbolical theology has spread from
sacraments to sacramentals and everything associated with worship, including
dress. With allegory paramount in the Middle Ages, the Western Church could not
escape attributing symbolical values to garments whose origin may have owed
little to symbolism. From the liturgical writer Amalarius of Metz in the 9th
century to the theologian Durandus of Saint-Pourçain in the 13th-14th
century sacerdotal vestments, in particular the stole
and the chasuble, were viewed
as symbols and indeed operated as such in a way that still influences current
usage. Thus, because the stole is a yoke around the neck of the priest and he
should rejoice in his servitude, on donning or doffing it he kisses the emblem
of his servile status. (see also
liturgy, Roman
Catholicism) |
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The notion of dress as a substitute skin
and, hence, as an acquired personality
temporarily assumed has been widespread in primitive
religion; such practices in shamanism
have been widely observed in Arctic and Siberian regions. The use of a
substitute skin in religious ritual is also explicit in the cultic actions of
some advanced cultures, such as in the rite of the Aztec maize goddess Chicomecoátl.
A virgin chosen to represent Chicomecoátl, after having danced for 24
hours, was then sacrificed and flayed; and the celebrant, dressed in her skin,
re-enacted the same ritual dance to identify with the victim, who was viewed as
the goddess. (see also Aztec
religion) |
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Religious dress may also serve a
memorial function, as in the case of the religious leaders (mullahs) of the Shi'ites
(Muslim members of the party of 'Ali), whose black gowns allude to the
sufferings of Husayn ('Ali's
son by Fatimah, Muhammad's only surviving daughter), who was
martyred at Karbala`, in modern Iraq, in AD 680. In the Eucharist, which is both a thanksgiving and a
reenactment of the sacrifice of Christ on Golgotha, the chasuble (outer garment)
worn by the celebrant depicts scenes from the Passion on the orphrey,
the name given to the elaborately embroidered strips stitched on the chasuble.
The fringes on the Jewish prayer shawl witness to "the commandments of the
Lord" in Numbers, chapter 15, and remind the worshipper that he has
covenanted to observe them. |
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Jewish vesture is an amalgam of very
ancient and extremely modern religious dress. Originally, sacerdotal dress was
probably varied and complex, but, after the destruction of the Second Temple in
AD 70 and the subsequent disappearance of the Temple offices, many garments
associated with priestly functions passed into oblivion. Chief among these
offices was that of the high priest. In addition to the usual Levitical garments
(those of the priestly class), the high priest, while officiating, wore the me'il
(mantle), the ephod (an
upper garment), a breastplate, and a headdress. The me'il was a sleeveless robe of purple the lower hem of which had a
fringe of small gold bells alternating with pomegranate tassels in red, scarlet,
purple, and violet. The ephod--an object of much controversy--probably consisted
of a wide band of material with a belt to secure it to the body, and it was worn
over the other priestly garments. Most important was the breastplate (hoshen),
which was square in outline and probably served as a pouch in which the
divinatory devices of Urim and Thummim were kept. Exodus, chapter 28, verse 15,
specifies that it was to be woven of golden and linen threads dyed blue, purple,
and scarlet. Because of its oracular function, it was called the
"breastpiece of judgment." On the face of the breastplate were set 12
gems in four rows, symbolizing the 12 tribes of Israel. These stones were a
sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle in the first row; an emerald, a sapphire, and
a diamond in the second; a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst in the third; and
a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper in the fourth. The identity, sequence, and
objects of representation of these stones are matters of controversy. Worn over
the ephod, the breastplate was slung from the shoulders of the wearer by golden
attachments. On his head the high priest usually wore a mitzenfet
(either a tiara or a turban), except on Yom
Kippur ("Day of Atonement"), when he wore nothing but white
linen garments upon entering the Holy of Holies (the inner sanctuary). (see also
Jerusalem,
Temple of) |
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Later religious dress of Judaism after
the fall of the Temple in AD 70 reflects usages that predate that event but were
continued in Judaism at the synagogue. Included among such garments are tefillin
(phylacteries) and tzitzit (fringes), which have certain features in common. The name
phylacteries is sometimes thought to point to a prophylactic origin, but the
term is actually a translation of the Hebrew word for "frontlets" (totafot).
Phylacteries are worn in obedience to the commandment found in Deuteronomy,
chapter 11, verse 18, and Exodus, chapter 13, verses 9 and 16: "And you
shall bind them [i.e., the words of
God] as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your
eyes." This implies that there should be two phylacteries: one to be worn
on the arm, the other on the head. Both kinds consist of a small black box of
hide containing a manuscript and are secured to the respective parts of the body
by leather thongs. On the sides of the head tefilla
is the Hebrew letter [Hebrew transliteration follows]U[End Hebrew
transliteration], the first letter of Shaddai (Almighty). Both boxes are secured
by leather thongs. The practice can be dated at least as far back as the 3rd
century BC. The knotted thongs indicate a prophylactic purpose--i.e.,
to protect the wearer against demons. Likewise, the wearer of these objects
was, for the prayer's duration, under the protection of the Almighty, whose name
he bore. The importance of knots in Semitic magic is also alluded to in the Qur'an
(the Islamic scripture). |
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Something similar obtains in the case of
the tzitzit (fringes), or
"twisted cords." The wearing of fringes is in obedience to a
commandment in Numbers, chapter 15, verses 38-40: "It shall be to you a
tassel to look upon and remember all the commandments of the Lord, [and] to do
them." The fringes were attached to the outer garment with no attempt at or
reason for concealment. Later, because of persecution, they became an inner
garment, enabling the wearer to observe the Law clandestinely. This garment,
which is not entirely obsolete, is styled arba'kanfot
("four corners") in allusion to Deuteronomy, chapter 22, verse 12
("you shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of your cloak with
which you cover yourself"), although no literary reference to its use can
be traced further back than the 14th century. (see also arba' kanfot) |
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The tallith,
or prayer shawl, has the four fringes also, but it is confined to synagogal use
and, even there, is limited to the morning service, whereas the arba'kanfot
is worn all day. Both silk and wool are used, but the woollen tallith is
preferable, with white as its ground colour. In the 20th century the tallith is
worn like a scarf and is sometimes pulled over the head to aid in concentrating
during prayer. Formerly, however, it was always wrapped around the head. In
orthodox Judaism, the head is invariably covered during worship, usually by a
skullcap known as a yarmulka or kappel. |
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Because a Jewish male is not supposed to
walk more than four cubits (six feet) with his head uncovered, a religious Jew
will wear the skullcap clipped to his hair, and indeed he may wear it all day
because he believes himself to be in the presence of God at all times. |
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The dress of rabbis
never conformed to precise standards. Current practice approximates modern
Genevan (Protestant) conventions (gown and bands). The Jewish Reform movement,
which began in Germany, further emphasized the Protestant character of
rabbinical dress, and Reform rabbis differ little in this respect from ministers
of various Protestant churches. Both cantor (hazzan)
and rabbi now use the black gown and round black hat, which came into use during
the 19th century. (see also Reform
Judaism) |
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On Yom Kippur, it was the custom for
participants to wear a sargenes, or
white garment, emphasizing that Yom Kippur was an occasion not only of
repentance but also of grace, for which festal wear was appropriate. Emphasis on
the atoning aspect of the occasion, however, led to the sargenes being interpreted as takhrikhim,
or graveclothes, which are worn to aid the worshipper toward a mood of
repentance, a practice also adopted by the hazzan
on two other occasions and by the host at the seder (meal) on Passover
(a feast celebrating the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt in the 13th century
BC). Officiants at the Yom Kippur service still dress in white robes. Shrouds
are normally of unadorned white linen, following the sumptuary ruling of the
1st-century-AD rabbi Gamaliel the Elder. To the shroud may be added the tallith
used by the deceased, but with the fringes removed or cut, because the
prescription governing their use applies only to the living. Both liturgical
vesture and everyday clothing must conform to the Mosaic requirement that
forbids the combination of linen and wool in the same garment (see also JUDAISM
). (see also death
rite, burial) |
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In the pre-Constantinian church (before
the early 4th century), no distinctive liturgical dress was worn, and the
Eucharist (Holy Communion) was celebrated by priests
whose dress did not differ from that worn by lay members of their congregations.
Present liturgical vestments in Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches derive from
a common origin--i.e., the garments
that were fashionable in the late Roman Empire. After the Schism of 1054,
however, they each followed separate courses (see also CHRISTIANITY
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A distinction is made between the
insignia of ecclesiastical and sacerdotal office in the hierarchy and the
functionally and symbolically significant liturgical robes. After the barbarian
invasions of the Roman Empire from the 4th century on, fashions in secular dress
changed, and thus the clergy became distinct in matters of dress from the laity.
Certain robes indicate a position in the hierarchy; others correspond to
function and may be worn by the same individual at different times. The most
important vestment among the insignia is the stole,
the emblem of sacerdotal status, the origin of which is the ancient palliumThe stole originally was a draped garment, then a folded one with
the appearance of a scarf, and, finally, in the 4th century, a scarf. As a
symbol of jurisdiction in the Roman Empire, the supreme pontiff (the pope, or
bishop of Rome) conferred it upon archbishops and, later, upon bishops, as
emblematic of their sharing in the papal authority. (see also
papacy) |
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The distinctive garb of the liturgical
celebrant is the chasuble, a vestment that goes back to the Roman paenula.
The paenula also was the Orthodox equivalent of the chasuble, the phelonionand perhaps also the cope
(a long mantle-like vestment). In its primitive form the paenula
was a cone-shaped dress with an opening at the apex to admit the head.
Because ancient looms were not wide enough to make the complete garment, it was
made in several parts sewn together with strips covering the seams. These
strips, of contrasting material, developed into the orphrey
(embroidery), on which much attention was later lavished. Next in the
hierarchical order after the priesthood were the diaconate
and subdiaconate, whose characteristic vestments were, respectively, the dalmatic
(dalmatica), a loose-fitting robe with
open sides and wide sleeves, and the tunic
(tunica), a loose gown. A priest wore
all three, one over another. Under these he wore the alb
(a long white vestment), held round the waist by a girdle, and around the neck
the amice (a square or oblong,
white linen cloth), with the maniple
(originally a handkerchief) on the left arm. Although the deacon used a stole,
the subdeacon did not. In the formative period of liturgical dress, these
practices were in the process of becoming normative. During the 9th to the 13th
century the norms now familiar were established. The chasuble became an
exclusively eucharistic garment; the cope, excluded from the Eucharist, became
an all-purpose festive garment. |
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Contemporary cassock
Algimantas
Kezys
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Next in importance to the chasuble is
the cope, a garment not worn during the celebration of the mass but rather a
processional vestment. It is worn by the celebrant for rites of a
non-eucharistic character, such as the Asperges, a rite of sprinkling water on
the faithful preceding the mass. The origins of the cope are not known for
certain by liturgical scholars. According to one theory, it derives from the
open-fronted paenula, just as the
chasuble derives from the closed version of the same garment. (The subsequent
wide divergence between the two vestments need not preclude a common origin.)
Unlike the chasuble, the form of which has never stopped changing, the evolution
of the cope was complete before the end of the Middle Ages. Cope chests, based
on the quadrant of a circle and designed to preserve the embroidered surfaces by
keeping the copes flat, were a common feature of medieval cathedrals. When it is
worn, the two sides of the garment are held together by a morse (a metal clasp).
The cope occupied an intermediate position between liturgical and nonliturgical
vestments, the most important of which was the cassock
(see photograph), the normal
dress of the priesthood outside church ceremonies. When engaged in religious
ceremonies, the officiant would wear the liturgical vestments over his cassock. |
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The tiara,
the papal diadem or crown apostolic, emerged in the early medieval period; and
the mitre (the liturgical
headdress of bishops and abbots), the most conspicuous of the episcopal
insignia, began as a mark of favour accorded to certain bishops by the supreme
pontiff at a somewhat later date. |
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Like the cope, the surplice
(a white outer robe) entered liturgical usage in the Middle Ages as a late
modification of the alb. By the 14th century its present role as a choral or
processional garment was established. With the passage of time, the length of
the garment grew progressively shorter. |
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The surplice was also associated with
the monastic orders, but vesture distinguished only the order and not the kind
of order. Eremitical (hermitic) monasticism allowed no standard form of dress to
develop, and only communal monasticism, beginning with the Rule
of St. Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century, enabled standardization to
become possible. Monastic dress included habit, girdle or belt, hood or cowl,
and scapular (a long narrow cloth worn over the tunic). The salient
characteristics of monastic dress have always been sobriety and conservatism.
The orders proved even more retentive of archaic fashions than the hierarchy,
and, in contrast to the deliberate splendour of ecclesiastical vestments,
monastic dress was expressive of a renunciation of luxury. The contrast was
functional in origin: the menial tasks of the monk
related him sartorially to the peasant, whose humble avocations he often
duplicated, rather than to the princes and prelates of the church, whose dress
reflected the splendour of the ceremonies in which they engaged. |
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Because of the diversity of the monastic
orders, only a summary account of their vesture may be given. The Benedictine
mantle was black, fastened with a leather belt; but the Cistercians--reformed
Benedictines--eschewed any dyed material and instead dressed in undyed woollen
material, which was off-white in colour. In the course of time this became
white, a tacit relaxation of the primitive austerity adopted as a protest
against "luxury." Carthusians,
a contemplative order founded in the 11th century, likewise wore white. In the
13th century the mendicant orders (friars) emerged. The Franciscans,
founded by St. Francis of Assisi, first used a gray habit, which in the 15th
century was exchanged for a brown one; in spite of this change they continued to
be known as the Grey Friars. The Carmelites,
an order founded in the 12th century, became known as White Friars. Dominicans,
founded by St. Dominic from Spain, adhered from the beginning to a black robe
over a white gown. Canons regular (communal religious persons living under
vows), although ordained, lived like the orders under a rule, and the Augustinians
(several orders following the Rule of St. Augustine) are styled Black Canons in
contradistinction to the Premonstratensians, or White
Canons, an order founded by St. Norbert in the 12th century. Because the
office (prescribed prayers) took up so much of a monk's time, his choir robes
were almost as important as his day clothes. Surplices were worn in choir with
an almuce over; this last was a lined shoulder cape designed to help the wearer
resist the cold of medieval churches. |
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Nuns'
costumes were similar to those of monks, the chief difference consisting in the
replacement of the hood by a wimple (collar and bib) and head veil. Habits are
white or black or mixed, and this remained unaltered until the 17th century,
when the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul introduced blue. This exception remained
unique; nuns' habits retained a markedly medieval aspect until reformed by the
second Vatican Council (1962-65). (see also
Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul,
Daughters of) |
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The cassock has its origin in the
barbarian caracalla, a robe favoured
by the Roman emperor Bassianus (reigned 211-217), who came to be known as Caracalla
because of the garment he habitually wore. Worn by the clergy as early as the
5th century, it became in time the standard day wear for prelates and priests,
hierarchical rank being indicated by colour: bishops, archbishops, and other
prelates wore purple; cardinals, red; the pope, white; and ordinary clergy,
black (see also ROMAN CATHOLICISM ). |
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The Middle Ages also witnessed the
evolution of Eastern Orthodox vestments into approximately their present form.
The eucharistic garment corresponding to the chasuble was the phelonion,
with variant forms in the Greek and Russian churches. The sticharionwhich is held by the zone, or
girdle, corresponds to the alb. The cuffs, or epimanikia,
which fit over the sticharion, bear
little or no resemblance to the maniple. The epitrachelionis the Orthodox equivalent of the stole, but it hangs straight instead of
being crossed over the chest, as is the case with the stole in Western churches.
On the deacon, the epitrachelion is
pinned to the left shoulder and hangs in front and behind; with this exception,
the deacon's vesture is identical with the priest's. The bishop wears an omophorionwhose shape and manner of wearing are closer to the original pallium
than either the stole or the epitrachelion.
In place of the phelonion, since
the 16th century, the bishop uses a dalmatic known as the sakkosThe epigonation, or rhombus-shaped portion of silk hanging to below the
right knee, is common both to bishops and archimandrites (head abbots). |
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The monastic habit of the monk differs
according to which of the three grades he occupies. The fully professed monk
wears the great, or angelical, habit, which consists of the inner and outer
rhasons, girdle, cowl (with veil), analvos,
and mandyas (mantle). The inner rhason
corresponds to the cassock and, like it, is used by the secular clergy. The
outer rhason, a wide-sleeved garment, is black in the Greek Church but variable
in colour in the Russian Church among the secular clergy (i.e.,
those who minister in parishes). The analvos
(shaped like the Western scapular, although historically unconnected with
it) differentiates the full, or perfect, monk from the other grades, and its
substance must be of animal, nonvegetable origin to remind the wearer constantly
of death. The mandyas is the bishop's
cloak (for non-eucharistic occasions), and in the Russian Church its use is
granted to monks of the intermediate grade, although this license does not
obtain in the Greek Church. In neither church may the mandyas
or analvos be worn by monks of the
lowest grade. Unlike Western orders, Orthodox monks dress only in black, but
they share the same sartorial conservatism, their habits having remained
unchanged in essentials from medieval times to the present (see also EASTERN
ORTHODOXY ). |
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The Reformation of the 16th century
varied in intensity from one country to another, and the fate of liturgical
vesture suffered accordingly. With the rejection of the dogma of transubstantiation
(the Roman Catholic teaching that in the Eucharist
the substance of the bread and wine is changed into the body and blood of
Christ, with the properties of the bread and wine remaining the same), the use
of the mass garments might have been expected to be eliminated, but, wherever an
altered eucharistic doctrine survived, an attenuated liturgical vesture
contrived to survive with it. In the case of the Anglican and Lutheran churches,
a paradoxical situation emerged whereby, in the latter, pre-Reformation
practices (e.g., use of crucifixes)
survived alongside a Reformation theology, whereas, in Anglicanism,
a Catholic theology survived along with a repudiation of Catholic rites. The Lutherans
rejected the insignia of a celibate clergy but retained the chasuble for
Communion services and the surplice and alb for other services. (see also Protestantism) |
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Bishops in both Lutheran and Anglican
communions retained the cope. The different editions of The Book of Common Prayer (the Anglican liturgical book) attest to
16th-century reforms and the rising power of Puritanism, a 17th-century reform
movement; the use of vestments declined in consequence. The cathedrals, however,
maintained liturgical vestment standards to a certain degree, even when the last
vestiges of liturgical propriety had been extinguished in the parishes in the
18th century. The cope became the High Church (liturgically oriented) vestment par
excellence, worn by bishops not only processionally but even during
Communion. Many views about the ceremonial revival of the 19th century have not
in all respects been accurate; and followers of Edward Pusey, a leader of the
Catholic revival known as the Oxford Movement, and ritualists sometimes
blundered not from excess of archaeological zeal as has been commonly supposed
but rather because they were inordinately influenced by their sociocultural
environment. This may be less immediately obvious in the case of vesture than in
architecture, but one result of overreacting was the loss, in the 19th century,
of the customary dress of the clergy. The gown and cassock, as street attire,
were allowed to fall into desuetude because in Puseyite views the gown was
Genevan, whereas in reality it was the reverse. Another instance lay in the
adoption of the (local) Roman biretta, introducing an Italian fashion even
though adequate indigenous precedents were not lacking. |
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The gown, now inseparably associated in
the popular mind with Genevan (Reformed) divines, was in fact opposed by these
same divines in England and Scotland in the 17th century. In spite of this,
standard vesture in Presbyterian churches is now the black gown and white linen
bands over cassock and cincture, with the academic hood added for preaching
services as a mark of learning appropriate to the pulpit, and a stole or scarf
(see also PROTESTANTISM ). |
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With a change in emphasis, chiefly
expressed in the episcopal use of the cope, Episcopalian usage in the first half
of the 20th century differed little from Catholic rules except in
Anglo-Catholicism, in which deliberate archaism imposed an adhesion to Baroque
(17th to early 18th century) models, themselves superseded within Roman
Catholicism. The Liturgical Movement of the 20th century has exercised an
influence beyond the boundaries of the church in which it originated, and modern
clerics of different denominations increasingly resemble one another sartorially
because all have had recourse to the same sources of liturgical inspiration. |
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In Roman Catholicism, the formative
period of religious dress was over before the Reformation, and Reformation
influence was indirect--via the impetus supplied by the Counter-Reformation,
which made Baroque its official art style. The emphasis on richness of material,
excessive decoration, and preoccupation with surface set in motion a process of
decline that was not arrested till the 20th century. The degeneration of the
Gothic chasuble with its pointed folds into a stiff fiddle-backed,
overembroidered vestment had begun as early as the 13th century with the
practice of elevating the Host (sacrificial elements) in the mass. The elevation
of the Host entailed the folding back on the celebrant's shoulders of the sides
of the chasuble. The flexibility of the early chasuble
permitted this, but, to facilitate the elevation, more and more material was
removed from the sides until the garment became a caricature of its primitive
form, distorted beyond recognition and its vestigial portions--dorsal (back) and
pectoral (front)--came to be viewed simply as canvases for the display of
virtuoso embroidery. Undergarments also became what is now viewed as effeminate
with the addition of lace, and, although the Liturgical Movement began with a
new theology of the Eucharist, its repercussions forced a decline of the Baroque
style in dress. |
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From the late Middle Ages to the 20th
century, the history of religious dress in the Roman Catholic Church has been
the history of its rubrical evolution: the regional variants of patristic (early
church) and early medieval times were eliminated in the interest of
ultramontanism (a theory that advocated a greater authority for the papacy),
until the second Vatican Council
reversed the process of eight centuries, again sanctioning regional divergences.
Council rulings also simplified the use of the mitre and suppressed the use of
the maniple altogether. Increased lay participation in the liturgy has led to an
extension of lay religious dress in more than one communion. To lay offices such
as the verger, who wears a gown over cassock, and chorister, who wears a
surplice, Anglicans have added that of the lay reader, who vests in cassock and
surplice, with a scarf as his ensign. |
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The upheavals of the 16th, 19th, and
20th centuries have not had much effect on Eastern
Orthodox vesture, and the same canons (rules) prevail today in Orthodoxy
as obtained prior to the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. To ascribe
this condition in Eastern Orthodoxy solely to the effects of cultural isolation
would be an oversimplification. Suppression of vestments or their alteration is
less likely to occur in a church in which such vestments have higher symbolic
value attributed to them than in other traditions. |
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Islam attaches less importance to
liturgical vestments than do most religions, but the social emphasis of the Islamic
faith finds expression in the universal application of the regulations governing
dress; e.g., all who enter the mosque
remove their footwear, and all going on pilgrimage must wear the same habit, the
ihramand thus appear in the holy places in the guise of a beggar. |
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Because Islam recognizes no
priesthood in a sense of a class sacramentally set apart, "clerical"
functions are discharged by the 'ulama`or "the learned (in the Law)," whose insignia is the 'imamah(a scarf or turban). The garb of the 'ulama`
exhibits geographical variations, but the 'imamah
is found everywhere. Two broad regional distributions obtain, with Iraq as
the area of confluence between the two. In the western part of the Muslim world,
"clerical" dress has tended to become standardized according to the
Azhar (Egyptian) pattern: a long, wide-sleeved gown (jubbah)
reaching to the feet and buttoned halfway down its total length over a striped
garment (caftan); and the headgear consists of a soft collapsible cap (qalansuwah)
of red felt around which is wound a white muslin 'imamah.
In Syria a hard tarbush of the
same red shade replaces the qalansuwah. Both
the qalansuwah and the tarbush
are provided with a blue tassel. The jubbah
is usually a sober shade of blue, gray, or brown, and seldom black. Among
the Sunnites--from Iraq
eastward--the jubbah is worn in
association with an 'aba`(a long, full garment), traditionally of camel's hair and brown or black in
colour. This is sometimes secured by a hijam,
or cummerbund. In this second regional variant, the 'imamah
becomes a full turban replacing the cap, or fez. A green turban usually
denotes a sharifor descendant of the Prophet Muhammad; and among the Shi'ites
(the party of 'Ali) the entire "clerical garb" is black, as a
symbol of mourning for the death of Husayn at Karbala`. |
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The Ottoman Turks, as strict Sunnites,
preferred turbans of other colours, which, elaborately wound, served to
distinguish the wearer from a non-Muslim. On conquering Constantinople in 1453,
they adopted the Byzantine cap and wound the turban around it in demonstration
of conquest. The elaborately wound turbans of Persia and India also have a
skullcap as a foundation for their folds. The art of winding a turban required
no small degree of skill, the wearer fitting the cap over his knee and winding
it in that position, whereafter the cap kept the folds in place. To the Prophet
Muhammad is attributed the saying "What differentiates us [in
appearance] from the polytheists is the turban." In India the turban has
also been worn by non-Muslims, but the Muslim turban has remained
distinguishable from the Hindu by the use of the skullcap as its foundation.
(see also Ottoman
Empire) |
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For all Muslim males, whether Sunnite or
Shi'ite, clerical or lay, the wearing of gold or silk is forbidden in
consequence of a prescription (Hadith) of the Prophet, whereby the
wearing of either was rendered "haram
[forbidden] for the males of my nation." Footwear must be removed on
entering a mosque for fear of
defiling the interior with ritually impure substances that may have adhered to
the sole of the shoe. This rule applies also to entering a grave; thus,
gravediggers and stonemasons must be unshod on such occasions. Because covering
the head is a Near Eastern way of showing respect, a head covering should
properly be worn in the mosque and even when praying outside the mosque. (see
also Hadith) |
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When a Muslim purposes to visit the holy
city of Mecca at the time of
the major pilgrimage (hajj), he enters on a state
of consecration and robes himself in two white seamless garments (ihram),
which may not be exchanged for normal dress until he deconsecrates himself after
the conclusion of the pilgrimage ceremonies. To these two garments women may add
a veil. |
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Many of the mystical dervish
orders (turuq) wear distinctive robes, frequently with hierarchical
differences. In Turkey, headstones are carved in the shape of the headdress
distinctive to the order to which the deceased belonged and are tinctured in the
appropriate colours. Particularly interesting are the ceremonial robes of the Mawlawiyah
order (popularly known in the West as the Whirling or Dancing Dervishes), in
which the symbolism of the robes is central to the mysteries of the order. The
dervishes wear over all other garments a black robe (khirqah), which symbolizes
the grave, and the tall camel's hair hat (sikke)
represents the headstone. Underneath are the white "dancing" robes
consisting of a very wide, pleated frock (tannur),
over which fits a short jacket (destegül).
On arising to participate in the ritual dance, the dervish casts off the
blackness of the grave and appears radiant in the white shroud of resurrection.
The head of the order wears a green scarf of office wound around the base of his
sikke. (see also death rite,
burial) |
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For all Muslims of whatever sect the
standard graveclothes are the threefold linen shroud,
or kafan: the izar,
or lower garment; the rida`, or
upper garment; and the lifafah, or
overall shroud. Martyrs, however, are buried in the clothes in which they die,
without their bodies or their garments being washed, because the blood and the
dirt are viewed as evidences of their state of glory (see also ISLAM
). |
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The distinction between ordinary dress
and religious dress is difficult to delineate in India because the ordinary
members of the various socioreligious groups may often be distinguished by their
costumes. For example, Parsi (Zoroastrian) women wear the sari(robe) on the right shoulder, not the left. (see also
Zoroastrianism) |
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Hindu men frequently wear short coats (angarkha),
and the women wear a long scarf, or robe (sari),
whereas typical Muslim attire for men and women is a long white cotton shirt (kurtah)
and trousers (pa`ijamah). Muslim women
also wear a veil called the burqah, which
not only hides the face but also envelops the entire body. Traditional Sikh (a
religion combining Hindu and Muslim elements) dress is an ordinary kurtah
and cotton trousers, covered by a long hanging coat (choghah).
The male Sikh is recognized especially by his practice of wearing his hair and
beard uncut, the former being covered by a particularly large turban and the
latter often restrained by a net. (see also
Hinduism, Sikhism) |
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The Brahmin
(Hindu priest) is distinguished primarily by the sacred thread 'upavita), which is bestowed
on him during his boyhood investiture and worn diagonally across the body, over
the left shoulder, at all times. During the water offering to saints, it is worn
suspended around the neck and, during ancestor rites, over the right shoulder.
Devotees may also wear a tonsure that leaves a tuft of hair longer than the rest
(shikha). The pravrajya
("going forth") associated with some Upanisads(Hindu philosophical treatises) involved a ritual rejection not
only of homelife but also of the upavita and
shikha. Ascetics
usually wear the ordinary loincloth, or dhotifor meditation or yoga (a
physical and psychological meditation system), but there is also a tradition of
naked asceticism. A teacher (swami)
traditionally wears a yellow robe (see also HINDUISM
; SIKHISM ; ZOROASTRIANISM
AND PARSIISM ). |
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Buddhism became more widespread in Asia
than other ascetic and meditational movements, partly because of the strong
organization of its monastic communities (sangha).
One of the main outward signs of the sangha,
along with the tonsure and the begging bowl, has always been the monk's
robe; "taking the robe" became a regular expression for entering the sangha.
The sangha was organized in accordance with the traditional code of
discipline (vinaya), which includes
the basic rules regarding robes in all Buddhist countries. These rules are all
linked to the authority of the Buddha himself, but at the same time they allow
considerable flexibility to cater to changing circumstances. (see also
monasticism) |
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The robe (civara) illustrates two main types of religious action, each
symbolized by the character of the materials used. First, the wearing of
"cast-off rags" was one of the "four resources" of a monk,
being an exercise in ascetic humility similar to the other three, which are
living on alms, dwelling at the foot of a tree, and using only cow's urine as
medicine. The use of rags was later formalized into making the robes out of
separate strips or pieces of cloth, but the rough patchwork tradition was
carried over into China, where hermit monks in modern times wore robes made of
old rags. In Japan, robes have been preserved with designs imitating the effect
of patchwork, and robes sewn from square pieces of cloth were nicknamed
"paddy-field robe" (densoe).
This latter term is reminiscent of an old Indian Buddhist tradition according to
which the Buddha instructed his disciple Ananda to provide robes for the
monks made like a field in Magadha (in India), which was laid out in
"strips, lines, embankments, and squares." In general, whatever the
degree of formalization, the rag motif ensured that the robe was to be
"suitable for recluses and not coveted by opponents." The second type
of religious action associated with the robe stemmed from the permission granted
to monks to receive robes or the materials for making them from the laity. This
meant that the laity "became joyful, elated, thinking: 'Now we will give
gifts, we will work merit . . . ' " (Mahavagga
VIII, 1, 36). Thus, the presentation of materials for robes was thought to
have the same beneficial karmic effects (toward a better birth in the future) as
the offering of food. The practice meant that various good materials were
offered as well as rags, and in due course six types were allowed on the
authority of the Buddha, namely, linen, cotton, silk, wool, coarse hempen cloth,
and canvas. |
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There are three types of civara
(i.e., tricivara): the inner robe (Pali, antaravasaka), made of five strips of cloth; the outer robe (uttarasanga),
made of seven strips; and the great robe, or cloak (samghati),
made of nine, 15, or 25 strips. |
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In order to avoid the primary colours,
Buddhist robes are of mixed colours, such as orange or brown. Another common
term for the robe, kasaya, originally
referred to the colour saffron, though this meaning is lost in the Chinese and
Japanese derivatives, chia-sa and kesa.
The robe is normally hung from the left shoulder, leaving the right shoulder
bare, though some ancient texts speak of disciples arranging their robes on the
right shoulder before approaching the Buddha with a question. In cooler
climates, both shoulders may be covered with an inner robe, and the outer robe
is hung from the left shoulder, as in China. |
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Sandals are allowed if they are simple
and have one lining only, or they may have many linings if they are cast-off
sandals. The rules for nuns' robes are similar, but they also wear a belt and
skirt. Some special vestments are worn by Tibetan Buddhists, including various
hats characteristic of the different sects (see also BUDDHISM
). |
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Court dress, sacrificial dress, and
ordinary dress were all influenced in ancient China by the Confucian-inspired
civil religion. The classical text for the Confucian ideal of deportment and
dress is Book X of the Analectsin which the emphasis is on propriety in every detail, whether at
home or in affairs of state or ceremony. The undergarment, for example, was
normally cut wide at the bottom and narrow at the top to save cloth, but it had
to be made full width throughout for court and sacrificial purposes. (see also
Confucianism) |
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Confucius was also said to have insisted
on the primary, or "correct," colours--blue, yellow, red, white, and
black--rather than "intermediate" colours, such as purple or puce, and
to have avoided red for himself because it was more appropriate for women. |
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Garments used in sacrifices to former
kings and dukes were prepared from silk grown in a special silkworm house.
According to the "Doctrine of the Mean," the clothes used by ordinary
people at sacrifices were "their richest dresses." The fully developed
Imperial costume for sacrifices was a broad-sleeved jacket and a pleated apron
around the waist. Decorative symbols represented the universe in microcosm and
thus the universal sovereignty of the emperor. |
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Funeral dress was generally white,
although the Shu
Ching("Classic of History") refers to a funeral at which those
who officiated wore hempen caps and variously coloured skirts. According to the I
Limourning dress
consists of "an untrimmed sackcloth coat and skirt, fillets of the female
nettle hemp, a staff, a twisted girdle, a hat whose hat string is of cord, and
rush shoes." For Mencius,
a 4th-3rd-century-BC philosopher, the wearing of a coarse cloth mourning garment
was an important aspect of traditional filial piety. |
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Buddhist robes in China followed Indian
tradition fairly closely, though they were noted under the T'ang dynasty (AD
618-907) for being black in colour. Taoist
robes, in contrast, were yellow. That this is an old tradition may be seen from
the example of the 2nd-century-AD Yellow
Turban movement, in which the missionaries and priests wore yellow robes
and the followers yellow headdresses. |
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The priestly robes of Shinto
are an example of the way in which rather normal garments of a formative age
became the specialized religious vestments of later times. |
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They consist of an ankle-length divided
skirt (hakama) in white, light blue,
or purple, depending on rank; a kimono in white, symbolizing purity, and of
which there are various types; and a large-sleeved outer robe of various colours
that is frequently a kariginu, or
hunting garment, as used in the Heian period (794-1185). The headgear is a
rounded black hat (eboshi). The more
elaborate "crown" (kammuri)
has a flat base, a protuberance rising forward from the back of the head, and a
flat band curving down to the rear. Within a shrine, stiff white socks with a
divided toe (tabi) are worn, and, when
proceeding to or from a shrine, officiants wear special black lacquered clogs (asagutsu)
of paulownia wood. Shinto priests carry a flat, slightly tapered wooden
mace (shaku), which symbolizes their
office but otherwise has no precisely agreed upon significance. The dress of miko
(girl attendants at shrines), whose main function is ceremonial dance, also
typically consists of a divided skirt and a white kimono. They carry a fan of
cypress wood. Young male parishioners bearing a portable shrine through the
streets may wear a kimono marked with the crest of the shrine and a simple eboshi.
(See also SHINTO .) |
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Buddhist robes continued the general
Buddhist tradition, but of particular interest are the ornate ceremonial robes
of high-ranking monks, especially in the Shingon and Nichirenite sects; the
white robes worn by devotees in the syncretistic Shugen-do
tradition (famous for its yamabushi, or
mountain priests) during lustrations and similar rituals, symbolizing purity, as
in Shinto; and the deep, inverted bowl-shaped hats of woven straw (ajirogasa) worn by Zen monks during begging tours. |
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Many new religions in Japan have
carefully manufactured ceremonial vestments based on Shinto or Buddhist
models or of mixed or original design. A common feature is the use of fairly
simple uniform clothing for all believers during dedicated labour, mass rallies,
or acts of worship. In Tenri-kyo, a religion founded in the 19th century
by Nakayama Miki, the name of the religion figures prominently on the back of
the garment, and, in Nichiren movements, the central symbol namu Myoho renge kyo ("Homage to the Lotus of the Good
Law") may be displayed on a stole hanging from the left shoulder. (
J.Di./M.Py.) (see also
Tenrikyo, Nichiren
Buddhism) |
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