Blue is for Beginnings: The Color of Advent
Each December, we ask for gifts to our TRUE NORTH campaign. Help us point to Jesus through the riches of the Anglican tradition. This year, every gift up to $12,000 will be matched, for a total of $24,000! Our matching fund is put up by David Roseberry at Leaderworks, who both contributes to Anglican Compass and writes on Substack as “The Anglican.” Give $100, and we will receive $200. Would you prayerfully consider a year-end gift or a monthly commitment? Click here to give now.
At the beginning of the church year, during the season of Advent, we wear blue in hopeful expectation of the coming of Christ. This blue reminds us of beginnings, both in creation and in the early worship of the people of God. For the Israelites, blue was in the curtains of the tabernacle, the robes of the high priest, and the tassels worn by the whole people of Israel. Just so, Advent blue recalls for us our Hebrew origins, inspiring us to holiness and hope in the promises of God.
Sponsored
Many churches use purple in Advent instead of blue, which has the virtue of matching the color of Lent, and bringing out its shared penitential character. To my mind, though, while purple is a good option, blue is even better. It shares the deeper mood of purple, appropriate to a period of preparation, but also brings out more distinctly the dynamics of longing and hope. It brings out the experience of Mary, that young Hebrew woman who trusted God even when his word seemed impossible. In Advent, we don’t exactly sing the blues, but we do pray them.
The Blue in God’s Creation
In the beginning, God created the color blue. Okay, I guess God created every color of light on the first day, but blue was the most prominent color in the beginning of the heavens and the earth.
The entire second day of creation concerns the separation of the blue skies from the blue seas:
And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
Genesis 1:6-8
To this day, blue is the most common color on our planet. Even from outer space, the dominant color is blue, as light reflects off the oceans and the atmosphere gives everything else a blue tint. The effect was particularly striking to the Apollo 8 astronauts, the first humans to see the Earth from outer space. They took a photo of the moment called Earthrise:
Set against the lifeless darks of outer space, the brilliant blue Earth reveals the close relationship between organic life and the color blue. Though trees and plants grow into greens and browns, they cannot grow without blue water. Just so, the green growth of Ordinary Time, which constitutes the second half of the church year, is watered by the hope of Advent blue.
The Blue in God’s Tabernacle
Though Genesis references many blue things, the word “blue” first appears scripturally in the Book of Exodus, when the Israelites gathered at Mount Sinai. God tells Moses to collect materials from the people for the construction of the Tabernacle, including “blue and purple and scarlet yarns” (Exodus 25:4).
These yarns, we learn next, shall be used to weave the curtains of the tabernacle, with blue specifically designated for the exterior loops that will attach one curtain to the next:
Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them…And you shall make loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain
Exodus 26:1, 4
Thus configured, the blue walls and links of the temple curtains may have reminded the Israelites of their exodus, of the blue walls of the parted sea. As they stood in the tabernacle, they would remember the God who delivered them from the Egyptians, who brought them out of slavery. The blue walls reminded them of God’s presence and of his faithfulness to his promise.
Priestly Vestments
This same blue yarn also appeared in the vestments of Aaron, the high priest. Notably, while the mixture of blue, purple, and scarlet was used in parts of the vestment, the robe was a solid field of blue:
You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. It shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it, with a woven binding around the opening, like the opening in a garment, so that it may not tear.
Exodus 28:31-32
Digital editing by Peter Johnston.
In other words, a blue robe went around the high priest’s neck and rested on his shoulders, framing both his head and his hands. In contemporary practice, we might compare this robe to the blue stole or blue chasuble that the priest wears in Advent, a eucharistic vestment that sits on the priest’s shoulder and frames his head and hands.
To give a visual impression of this vestment, I include below a mosaic of Aaron from St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, made around 1000 AD. Though this mosaic does not capture every element of Aaron’s vesture, it does include a version of his blue robe. In the Eastern Orthodox church, blue is sometimes worn during Advent and also used for feasts connected to Mary.
Blue Tassels
Remarkably, God also commanded the Hebrew people to wear a touch of blue in the corner tassels of their clothing. He intended these tzitzit to be a daily visual reminder of God’s commandments, his call to holiness, and his faithfulness in bringing his people out of Egypt:
Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD your God.
Numbers 15:38-41
Because Jesus fulfilled the law, the ceremonial law no longer binds Christians today, and we are not obligated to wear the blue tzitzit. But we are not prohibited from doing so, either. Jesus wore such tassels, after all! An optional act of devotion during Advent would be to wear tzitzit or another blue object to remember God’s deliverance through the sea and our calling to be a holy and priestly people.
Royal Blue and Mary’s Blue
In the Ancient Near East, blue was the color of royalty. Producing an effective blue dye was also exceptionally expensive. When made from natural materials, it often required crushed lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, a material more expensive than gold. Thus, blue clothing was analogous to Roman Purple, the color of the Caesars, the most costly of their dyes.
Egyptians desired blue so much that they developed a chemical method to produce a blue dye, the first synthetic pigment in history. It allowed them to produce large quantities of blue dye for royal painting and clothing. It is also the only reason that the Israelites had blue yarn to work with; they had just come out of Egypt!
Thus, Advent blue points forward to the birth of a new King, the promised Messiah and Son of David. And this is also why art so often depicts Mary wearing blue: not because she wore blue, in fact, but as a symbol of the King. As Gabriel told Mary:
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Luke 1:31-33
The Cloth of Blue
Another typological connection between Mary and the color blue is the “cloth of blue” which covered the Ark of the Covenant when it traveled (Numbers 4:6). Just as the Ark of the Covenant carried the Word of God through the wilderness and eventually to Jerusalem, so Mary bore the Word of God from Nazareth to Bethlehem and finally presented him in Jerusalem. So the artistic depiction of Mary in blue points to her role as theotokos—God-bearer—and to the birth of the newborn King.
For example, here is Botticelli’s Madonna of the Book, in which Mary holds Jesus while reading the message of Gabriel concerning Jesus as the coming King. Her clothing is a rich blue, painted with an exceptionally precious ultramarine pigment made from lapis lazuli.
Advent Purple or Advent Blue?
Many churches use purple rather than blue during Advent. As I said in the introduction, purple is a good option because it conveys the sense of penitential waiting that characterizes Advent as we await the coming of Christ. In this regard, Advent mirrors Lent, which also features the color purple.
To my mind, however, blue more effectively brings out the sense of hope that characterizes Advent, as we look with expectation to the fulfillment of God’s promises. Moreover, the use of blue has such an extensive Biblical basis, especially in priestly vestments, that it would seem like a major loss to exclude it from the calendar entirely.
Sarum Blue
Anglicans have another reason to favor blue in Advent: the history of blue vestments in medieval English cathedrals. In the medieval period, purples and blues were less clearly distinguished, since available dyes often produced a bluish purple. Thus, the inventory lists of cathedrals, including famously those at Salisbury, include various shades of purple and blue, including reference to both blue and indigo. This has given rise to the phrase “Sarum Blue” (Sarum was the Latin name for Salisbury) to describe a deep blue for use in Advent or other occasions.
While we do not know for sure whether such colors were used at Salisbury during Advent, various shades of blue do seem to have been used at Exeter, Lichfield, and Westminster (for more, see Watts & Co.’s helpful historical summary). In sum, there is a native Anglican tradition of blue that many now seek to revive.
That said, we must acknowledge that vestments are expensive. Thus, for reasons of tradition or economy, many parishes have only one purple set to use in both Advent and Lent.
A Parish Story with Advent Blue
Shortly after we started our church (Trinity Anglican in Lafayette, Louisiana), an Episcopal Church that was closing (Trinity Episcopal in Crowley, Louisiana) gave us their altar, pulpit, paraments, and clerical vestments.
It was a fabulous gift, but it did not include Advent blue. This bothered Ms. Cleo, a founding member of our church and a leader in our altar guild. Thus, every year, I would have a conversation with Ms. Cleo about our shared interest in Advent blue.
Ms. Cleo passed abruptly in the summer of 2021—sadly, before we could acquire a set of Advent blue. But the parish, recalling her interest, took a collection at her funeral and purchased a set for use the following Advent (pictured below, with edited crop at top of article). I dedicate this article to the memory of Ms. Cleo and look forward to seeing her in heaven, around the throne of God, “in appearance like sapphire” (Ezekiel 1:26, 10:1).
The Blue Before the Dawn
In conclusion, Advent blue speaks to the universal experience of longing, of hope for a future yet to be fulfilled. Properly observed, Advent gives the church an opportunity for solidarity with grief, loss, and anyone who might experience a “blue Christmas.”
But the blue of Advent also points forward to the light to come, like the deep blue of the sky just before dawn. In the economy of God, weeping is the prelude to joy, and death is the way to resurrection:
Weeping may tarry for the night,
Psalm 30:5
but joy comes with the morning.
Advent, therefore, functions as a calendrical version of the blues. Submerged with longing, Advent is also shot through with hope. By faith, and with prayer, we look forward to the coming of God’s Son and the consummation of all things. His light, and our new beginning, is just around the corner.
Image: Ms. Cleo Memorial Advent Set, courtesy of Trinity Lafayette. Photo by Peter Johnston. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
The Good Grief of Advent: Living in the Longing
For some, happiness is very elusive this time of year. Therefore, it’s appropriate that Advent is here to give voice to our melancholy.
Green is for Growth: The Color of Ordinary Time
In most Anglican churches, you will see the color green during the season of Ordinary Time. It appears in green clergy vestments, in green fabrics on the altar and pulpit, and sometimes in green hangings or other adornments. You might even choose to wear green on occasion (no obligation to do so!). This green represents…
_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg){kind=link}