The Catholic Church has rich liturgical traditions in every part of the world, many of which are not identical. This can be seen especially on the feast of Pentecost, where Roman Catholics are accustomed to seeing red, while Eastern Catholics are familiar with green.
It is a difference that may be difficult to understand, but when you dig deep into the symbolism, they both make sense.
Red = Fire
In the Roman Rite, the Church has chosen the color red for the vestments worn by the priest and deacon on Pentecost Sunday.
Heinrich Stieglitz wrote about this liturgical color in his 1923 book The Church Year, explaining its symbolism:
Red is a warmer and stronger color than white. It glows like fire and signifies heavenly love. The Holy Spirit is Divine Love. He came from heaven in the form of fiery tongues. The hearts of the Apostles burned with holy love. Speech came from the lips of St. Peter in a stream of fire, as it were, and inflamed the hearts of the Jews. The feast of Pentecost therefore is celebrated in red.
This color is based primarily on the events that are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles and how "tongues of fire" descended upon the disciples awaiting the arrival of the Holy Spirit.
Red is also popularly a color associated with love, and so red on Pentecost emphasizes this connection.
Green = New life
In the East, green is the primary color of Pentecost, which may not seem like a natural choice from the point of view of Roman Catholics.
However, it is truly "natural" in every sense of the word.
The Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix helps explain the symbolism of green:
Pentecost is marked in Eastern Europe by a profusion of greenery. On this day, every Greek Catholic and Orthodox home is adorned with green branches at the gates, on apartment balconies, and over doorways. Fresh greenery is put into a vase for the family icon corner. In the church, green branches are put across the iconostasis, large sheaves of green grass are on the floor, and all the clergy are vested in green. Pentecost gives us new life in the Holy Spirit!
Furthermore, one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit is a dove and when Noah sent out a dove from the ark, the dove came back with a green branch:
In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! (Genesis 8:11).
This led to new life when the waters of the flood receded.
The Church has many rich traditions, all of which point back to the central truths of the Christian faith.
