Liturgical colours -rethinking the tradition

A few months back I suggested we might rethink the liturgical colours. THere are two reasons; one is the ecumenical suggestion of adding a Creation season, the other is the note that for Anglicans, like for the Orthodox, liturgical colours are down to custom and 'local use'. So why not think again? So, having spent an idle half hour recolouring a stole, here's some suggestions.

I actually think that for common time, having something more neutral would seem to be a good idea, one idea for neutral would be grey. So this would replace the current green. This is partly because I think that we can use green better symbolically as you will see further below.

I'd use white still as a possible festival colour. In this case it's here for All Saints, I'd also suggest it for Transfiguration and Epiphany, but I have other suggestions for Christmas and Easter, see further below.

For Kingdom-tide, that is between All Saints and Advent, I'd suggest this indigo (or perhaps a deep, midnight blue)

Then in Advent, perhaps we should keep the purple, which also suggests the royalty implied by Christ the King.

I think that there may be some value in considering whether other possibilities might suggest themselves in Advent .

Then there's Christmas, and here I'm suggesting that we use green both as a symbol of life and also (with a similar root symbolic etymology) to pick up the evergreen theme in much cultural decoration around this time. Also red and white are used a lot, and I suggest we pick those up too. Red is a reminder of blood and white of purity ...

It may be that some would like to use the green/red scheme around Christmas and white on Christmas day itself. And, as mentioned above, I'd suggest we use white for Epiphany.

It may be that white could be considered appropriate from Epiphany through to Candlemas, and then revert to grey. On Ash Wednesday, I'd suggest we move, for Lent, to the colour of earth; to signify humility and also the preparation for frutifulness: so brown it is.

I quite like the idea of red for blood, and so during Passiontide and Holy Week ...

Then for Easter, perhaps something that suggests light and sun, but after Easter day or Easter week, to return to the life theme and symbolising that with green.

I was wondering whether Ascension should have anything in particular. I'm still considering this but, here's a first thought;

Next up is Pentecost. If we're using green for life, then green could be a possible. However, it'd be nice both to use a different colour and also to pick up the tongues of fire thing that the Red of Roman usage uses for Pentecost. So how about a fiery sort of colour?

So we'd still use red for martyrs ...

And perhaps when we got around to Creationtide, we'd still want to use green, but I'm wondering whether blue and green and perhaps yellow might be better still?

So let me know thoughts, further ideas, etc.

How do we get this up and underway? Simply by doing it. I've got some ideas for designs for the Lenten proposal above. I'll let you know if I'm able to do any more with any of it.