Thursday, December 22, 2011

Why Does Santa Wear White Gloves?

A friend posted that her kid asked the question "Why does Santa wear white gloves?"
That got me thinking it must have to do with St Nicholas being a bishop. Then I found this:

Liturgical gloves (chirothecœ, called also at an earlier date manicœ, wanti,) are a liturgical adornment reserved for bishops and cardinals. Other ecclesiastics, including abbots, cannot use them without a special papal privilege. They are worn only at a pontifical Mass, never at any other function, and then only to the washing of the hands before the Sacrifice.
 The colour of the gloves must correspond with the liturgical colour of the feast or day in the services of which they are worn; episcopal gloves, however, are never black, as they are not used on Good Friday nor at the celebration of Masses for the dead.
Awesome! And now you know how to answer that question if your kid asks. :) 


2 comments:

  1. ...And don't you know, Jesus and the Apotles all had white gloves and pointy hats, and colored priestly vestments for the seasons of the years, etc.
    What a mess of formality and austerity the simple faith became under Rome and Constantinople....The problem of letting the seat of Empires become the standard for the world. As with our own representatives in D.C., there are few people more out of touch with society, and so, less cross-cultural, than those in the capital city of these churches. And so, they construct the Mass in their own image....old, stiff, morose, and stodgy, putting a lie to the words, "And so, we joyfully proclaim...," or "...we joyfully sing..."
    How to realize the Church is too caught up in pomp? --- If any of the Apostles showed up unannounced at your church to perform for Mass, dressed as they were in the clothes of their day, they would not let him perform the Mass. In fact, even if Jesus showed up, they wouldn't let Him perform the Mass.
    That's how untraditional the tradition is, and how un-Pauline in their lack of cross-cultural approach (i.e. become a Jew to the Jew, and a Gentile to the Gentiles... becoming all things to all men). Until the mid-20th century, they were still doing Mass in Latin in the ENGLISH SPEAKING WORLD, and now again have small portions of the vernacular mass in Latin. And the Greek Mass in America still includes Greek!
    So much unbiblical human foolishness universally imposed upon the church by people who have bought the lie of imposed tradition not based on scripture.

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  2. Santa's wear white gloves so it's clear where their hands are in the photos.

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