Interestingly, one of the most popular colors seen in homes during December is the color red.
Sometimes this color can even make it into Catholic parishes, where red is used as an accent color throughout the church.
However, red is nowhere mentioned as an official color for Advent, even though it is a popular color during the Christmas season.
Violet and Rose
The two primary colors used in the Catholic Church for Advent are violet and rose.
In an issue of The American Ecclesiastical Review (printed in 1902), the author gives a unique explanation behind the reason why violet and rose were chosen for Advent.
Violet vestments signify on the whole Sorrow, and are meant to inspire a grave and thoughtful attitude in the faithful who attend the liturgical services. If you mix blue and red in liquid colors you obtain violet. Blue is the color of heaven and suggests that our thoughts turn away from earth. Red is the color of martyrdom, of blood, and of the flame which consumes the sacrifice. A combination of the two, which makes violet, is, therefore, indicative of sacrifice with a view to heaven, unselfish devotion.
In particular, violet is used in the season of “Advent, when the spirit of reflection and the purging of the heart (as a preparation to meet the poor and humble Christ Child in the Cave of Bethlehem) call for self-denial from motives in which heaven leads the soul against earthly attachments.”
Additionally, the color violet is interrupted on the Third Sunday of Advent by the color rose, to signal the coming joy of Christmas.
On the third Sunday of Advent … when there is a momentary interruption of the penitential strains lest the soul wrapt in continuous darkness might become disconsolate, the Church permits—with the sounds of music and the flowers on the altar—a light purple approaching rose color, to indicate the tone of hopeful joy which mingles with and relieves the application to penance. It is the encouraging caress of the Spouse, our holy Mother, bidding her sons and daughters to keep on bravely in the spirit of faith.
The Church continues to use violet as a primary color during Advent, even though the modern culture has its own set of colors for the month of December.
