Popular Easter Colors Are More Than Just Pretty — They Have a Special Meaning (2024)

Here's why hues like purple, pink, yellow and white are so traditional for the holiday.

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Popular Easter Colors Are More Than Just Pretty — They Have a Special Meaning (1)

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Once winter ends, inviting spring hues are all around us, from lively Easter eggs and floral arrangements to pastel-colored outfits that bring on the cheer. While you might be kickstarting your Easter celebration plans, take a moment to consider the meaning behind popular Easter colors. There's a special reason why shades like purple, white, red, pink and gold can be found everywhere during the holiday.

While it has a lot to do with tradition (think flowers with symbolic meanings, for instance), some are connected to liturgical colors that are found in priests' clothing along with the banners hanging around the church. The colors of the vestments have meaning during the year, but throughout lent and Easter, they signify various aspects of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection. That said, before you reach for your Easter decorations (we recommend DIY crafts, by the way) or start settling on Easter brunch ideas, think about the true meaning behind Easter colors.

White

Popular Easter Colors Are More Than Just Pretty — They Have a Special Meaning (2)

White is frequently associated with innocence and purity. However, the color is also affiliated with the Easter holiday. The Easter lily, believed to have grown in in the Garden of Gethsemane following Christ's crucifixion, is white. What's more, in the art world, white lilies often represent the Virgin Mary as a symbol of her purity.

Black

Popular Easter Colors Are More Than Just Pretty — They Have a Special Meaning (3)

You're well aware that black is associated with mourning, but it's also common to see the hue pop up during Lent and Easter. It's viewed as a symbol of Good Friday, which recognizes Jesus' crucifixion, as well as Holy Saturday — the final day of Jesus' death.

Violet

Popular Easter Colors Are More Than Just Pretty — They Have a Special Meaning (4)

Violet is a very common color during lent. It's worn by clergy throughout the season of lent as a symbol of penance, humility and melancholy. It serves as a reminder of Jesus's suffering.

Yellow/Gold

Popular Easter Colors Are More Than Just Pretty — They Have a Special Meaning (5)

The Easter season is filled with yellow: chicks, colored eggs, yellow flowers reborn in spring and, most importantly, sunshine. Yellow flowers are symbol of friendship. (So are yellow heart emojis.) And in a religious context, gold represents joy, victory and triumph, as in the resurrection's triumph over death.

Pink

Popular Easter Colors Are More Than Just Pretty — They Have a Special Meaning (6)

As far as liturgical colors go, pink — which means joy — is worn only twice: on the third Sunday of advent, and the fourth Sunday of lent. And outside the church, sending someone a pink rose is also a happy message, symbolizing joy, happiness, grace and gentleness, according to Fifty Flowers.

RELATED: 30 Special Rose Color Meanings You Should Know Now and Forever

Red

Popular Easter Colors Are More Than Just Pretty — They Have a Special Meaning (7)

Though red isn't used a lot for decorating during Easter, it still has a huge significance for the holiday: Red is worn on Palm Sunday as a symbol of the blood of Christ and His sacrifice for humanity.

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Green

Popular Easter Colors Are More Than Just Pretty — They Have a Special Meaning (8)

Green is a symbol of eternal life, along with rebirth and renewal. It's a color and meaning most appropriate for spring, when everything starts blooming again.

Popular Easter Colors Are More Than Just Pretty — They Have a Special Meaning (2024)

FAQs

What is the significance of the Easter colors? ›

What are the colors for Easter Sunday? Easter Sunday uses the triumphant colors of gold and white to represent the glory and joy of the resurrection. Gold and white are also associated with the ideas of the victory of good over evil, purity, holiness and the promise of everlasting life.

What color are you supposed to wear on Easter? ›

On Easter, the color white symbolizes purity, grace, and, ultimately, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the joyful culmination of the Easter season.

What is the theme of Easter Sunday colors? ›

On the evening of Holy Saturday (Easter vigil), or certainly come Easter Sunday, white or gold are used to celebrate the resurrection. The Easter color is used until Pentecost. On Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, red is used.

What is the true meaning of Easter? ›

In commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus, Easter also celebrates the defeat of death and the hope of salvation. Christian tradition holds that the sins of humanity were paid for by the death of Jesus and that his Resurrection represents the anticipation believers can have in their own resurrection.

What is the color code for Easter? ›

Sacred Green

Green is the ultimate Easter color. This holiday combines sacrifice, resurrection, and eternal life – a new beginning and growth. Appropriate for spring, when new life blooms on every corner.

What not to wear on Easter? ›

All in all, people still tend to dress up for religious services, Post says. "For the most part, people are looking to avoid jeans and T-shirts and go a step up from that, whether that's khakis and a polo shirt, a really nice dress — it varies by community and service."

What's the color for Easter 2024? ›

What is the color of Easter? Although pastel colors are popular in Easter outfits, white is the official color of Easter, and a priest's garments will be white and gold on Easter Sunday.

Are you not supposed to wear white on Easter? ›

While there are many who still choose to live by the tradition-based guideline that you must wait until Memorial Day to wear white, there are others who favor a different date: Easter. In fact, Easter is sometimes seen as the true mark of being able to break out your best whites, and it does make sense in some ways.

Is it okay to wear red on Easter? ›

Red. Though red isn't used a lot for decorating during Easter, it still has a huge significance for the holiday: Red is worn on Palm Sunday as a symbol of the blood of Christ and His sacrifice for humanity.

What is the church color for Easter? ›

White/Gold - Purity, Light, Glory, and Joy

White and/or gold are worn during Christmas and Easter. These colors signify the birth and resurrection of Christ.

What color represents the Holy Spirit? ›

Most of us are familiar with the Holy Spirit being symbolized by a dove and the color white, or as at Pentecost, red for the flames.

What are the Easter colors in the Bible? ›

White and Gold (The Colors of Easter Day)

Throughout the Bible, white symbolizes purity: “'Come now, let us reason together,' says the LORD. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool'” (Isaiah 1:18).

What are the liturgical colors for Easter? ›

White (or gold), since it is a festive, joyful colour, is used during the Christmas and Easter seasons, and on major feast days, such as, on the celebrations of the Lord other than of his Passion, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the Holy Angels, and of Saints who were not martyrs, and on the Solemnities of All Saints.

What do colored Easter eggs symbolize? ›

The egg itself became a symbol of the Resurrection. Just as Jesus rose from the tomb, the egg symbolized new life emerging from the eggshell. In the Orthodox tradition, eggs are painted red to symbolize the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. The egg-coloring tradition has continued even in modern secular nations.

What do the colors of the cloth on the cross mean? ›

The black cloth represents the mockery, suffering, crucifixion, and death of Christ. The black cloth remains on the cross from Good Friday, through Holy Saturday (the day Jesus was in the grave). The white cloth represents the resurrection of Christ.

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