A serious question came up recently. Is the midnight Paschal liturgy to be considered a daytime event or an evening event for the purposes of dressing? On the one hand, it is midnight after all. On the other, it is, liturgically, day, sort of.
Practically, this is the question of whether one has occasion to bring out the dinner jacket (tails would seem a bit much) or whether one should stick with a suit (no American has formal morning attire, but if one has a black peak lapel jacket and striped/checked trousers, one could sneak something by the unsuspecting masses, while a morning coat would just be too much).
I'm not going to suggest that one hire or purchase such clothes for the occasion if one doesn't have them, except to say that every man should have a suit. Nor am I suggesting that we turn the Paschal vigil into an ostentatious display of finery. This is, largely, academic for me, since I don't have a dinner jacket and don't intend to purchase one. I wouldn't wear one even if it were appropriate because I would typically serve and a black bowtie doesn't work well with a sticharion (nor should altar servers wear ties, in my opinion). I've already detailed my opinion on formal daytime attire. Accordingly, my Easter attire is already chosen for me no matter what: a dark solid-colored suit (striped suits are strictly business attire). I'm going with oxford grey.
7 comments:
I think one should look respectable, but not like a fancy pants clothes horse. Most men in suits at church look uncomfortable. This is good. They are being ascetical, oddly. Other men are in rather shabby suits. This too is good, asectical.
Unfortunately, I am very comfortable in expensive suits, the only suits I have are not particularly expensive, but they fit well and I look good in them. This is all bad. This is not ascetical. This is me looking like I am showing off. So, I wear jeans. They're clean and have no holes. I do not wear sneakers, I wear nice shoes and a collared shirt (with a sweater in the winter). I shower before church. This is me being simple and unobtrusive.
Some people are offended by jeans. These people are very old, usually, or their super egos were formed by very old people's view of jeans as being common. I prefer being common in Church, actually, though I want the Church itself to be less so. My parish seems to desire the opposite for some reason.
An older woman once told me I shouldn't wear jeans in church. The next week I told her that at first I was offended, but then I realized that I am all for increasing our respect for the Church and the services. So, I offered her a deal. I would wear slacks or a suit if she would go to all the people that regularly, habitually arrived late to Liturgy and tell them to show up on time. Thus, we'd be increasing respect for the Church all around. I'd help. "I can't do that." This denim wearing chanter and Sunday School teacher would prefer people arrive on time for "Blessed is the Kingdom" dressed in the PJs.
Well, that's all well and good, and there's a lot there I can agree or disagree with (I served in the altar last week in jeans and Chuck Taylors - not what I typically do, but I thought little of it). My general philosophy is that I wear business casual five days per week, so I might as well wear it a sixth day. Sometimes I throw on a suit if the weather is appropriate - it's actually easier for me to wear a suit than decide on some "outfit". Jeans, by the way, are less comfortable than most of my other attire because they are typically too tight on my massive and powerful thighs.
But this is beside the point. The question is the following: for Pascha, would we wear evening attire or daytime attire? It goes without question that we ought to be on time, St John Chrysostom's homily notwithstanding.
Oh yeah, that was the question. I guess I got onto jeans because my attire doesn't change from morning to evening. My dress really only changes based on the weather, not the time of day. I'm a philistine.
You're not a philistine, it just means you don't have a dinner jacket or formal morning attire. Neither do I. Nor do I intend to obtain either in the near future. I'm getting married in a suit, even. It's a purely academic question.
I'm leaning toward evening attire, if only because it's evening and nobody but me even knows what daytime formal attire looks like.
I was married in a morning suite, which some etiquette book had said was traditional for a daytime wedding (not just mornings). Of course, I rented mine - ascot and all, no spats.
If backed into a corner, I would agree that evening attire is most appropriate. Dark suite, light shirt, dark colored tie or minimal design.
For the record, I wore a light colored summer suit to pascha this past year - under my riassa. It was a late Pascha, it was warm, and I wanted to wear something bright for the Resurrection.
Right, that is, indeed, formal daytime attire, not just mornings despite the name. Fit and proper for any wedding or formal occasion before 6pm. There's something unseemly about hired clothing, which is why I'm going for a suit instead of morning attire for my wedding. I'd wear a turndown collar and formal tie instead of an ascot and those dreadful rented wing collar shirts if I did go for morning attire. Anyway. The question remains.
I'd suspect that the evening/morning attire dichotomy is based more on the direction of the sun than anything else. Since the Pascha services are at a point when the sun is below the horizon, that would be evening, just like 4 pm is morning for attire.
A recently-tonsured reader at my parish came up to me a few weeks ago with a big grin and said, "I'm not wearing any pants." I suppose that's a benefit of wearing a cassock...
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