A TCF reader emailed me with the following question:

“Hi Paige,

thank you for all your content on veiling and catholic femininity. My baby will be getting baptised soon and I really like all the choices for baptism gowns that you have on your site. I would like to ask for your advice on what veil colour I should wear for the baptism as his mother. I know some women say that married women should wear black, but you have also mentioned many times that black veils is actually only for penitentiary periods in the liturgical year, during funerals and the first year of a woman becoming a widow. What colour would be appropriate to wear?”

This is a great question and many congrats to her on the upcoming baptism of her baby! The baptism gowns she mentioned can be found HERE.

While some women think that black veils is only for married, this is not in Catholic tradition. Black veils historically are worn during penitentiary periods such as Halloween triduum, Lent, some parts of Advent, funerals and so on. The married women wearing black veils actually came from widows wearing black veils during the funeral of their spouse and for the mourning periods afterwards, which can be a month or up to a year. It is not worn as a status of marriage at all. Married women veil just like the singles, in accordance with the liturgical period.

When it comes to special events like the baptism of one’s baby, this is a period of celebration as a new precious soul is being baptised into God’s family.

Looking back at adult baptisms – these are usually held at Easter vigil, right? And if you recall, Easter vigil, the night before Easter Sunday, is a celebratory time, remembering Jesus rising from the dead and the colour that is present in the vestments of the priests and other decorations is GOLD.

At this time, new converts are also baptised into the church and historically, they were encouraged to wear white because just like newborn babies, they too are now babies, being born and baptised into God’s family. Even if a convert does not want to wear an all white outfit, I encourage them to wear light-coloured outfits and a white veil.

Babies are dressed in all white at their baptism for the same reason – they are being baptised and born anew into God’s family.

However, what does the mother wear? She is not being baptised, so she does not need to wear white. She is, however, celebrating a joyous occasion, so the appropriate veil colour to wear would be gold or even cream. Some women like to veil in colours that match the sex of the baby: blue veils for boys or pink veils for girls – go for lighter shades of these; so, baby blue instead of navy blue and so on. If you are baptising twins, a boy and a girl, switch to a cream veil.

But whatever you do, do not wear black (a colour that represents death and mourning) at the baptism of your baby.

If you think about it, many images of our Lady show her dressed in blue or veiled in blue. Could it be because her child, Jesus, is a boy? I guess, we’ll find out when we meet her in Heaven.

I hope this helps and check out the veils below for examples of appropriate veils to wear at your baby’s baptism. To view them in full or purchase, click on the pictures.

For baptismal gowns, click HERE. Yes, they are gowns; they may look like dresses, but they are actually unisex and are for both boys and females; baby boys were not historically baptised wearing trousers.

Think of it this way: when you see a priest or seminary and a nun or novice, they are of different sexes, right? But they are both dressed in what a non-Catholic may consider a gown, but this is actually a cassock for the priest and a habit for the nun. Kinda the same principle applies re baptismal gowns for babies: both baby boys and girls are dressed in the same type of baptismal gown.

A great example is to look to traditional Anglican baptisms, which retain a lot of the ancient rites from Catholicism. Babies of both genders are baptised in special baptismal gowns as shown here by Catherine at the baptism of her two sons and daughters.

Sadly, many Catholics today have lost their connection to ancient church customs, due to Novus Ordo and the Church becoming more liberal, and it is a little sad that we have to look at the Anglican church for glimpses of our rich and beautiful past.

Also, you will notice that Catherine is dressed in creamy, white colours. She wears hats at her babies’ baptisms, as the Anglican rejected veil-wearing in order to show visible separation from the Catholic church and that is why hat-wearing is symbolic of Protestantism, while veil-wearing is more synonymous with traditional Catholicism.

Our Lady, model of motherhood, pray for us