Christmas morning, kilted at church.

[ohiopiper]

Several factors came together this past Sunday morning to make it memorable.

1) There is an Indian family that attends our church. On special ocassions (like Christmas morning) they wear traditional Indian dress. Sorry, I'm enough of a rube I don't know the proper name for it.

2) Their son was comlaining about it several weeks ago, he's at the age where he's self-concious about doing anything "different" from everyone else. I told him to quit whining about it, if he promised to stop complaining to his parents, I'd wear my kilt and argyll jacket Christmas Sunday morning. Not insignificant, because I'm the music director and in front of the entire congregation for about half the service. I'm also a deacon and therefore serve communion (along with another deacon) to the congregation while the pastor reads appropriate passages from the Bible (Jesus' words from the Last Supper).

3) there is an elderly woman who has attended here since before i was born, a native English woman from somewhere in the North of England and has expressed an appreciation for all things English and Scottish she encounters here in Ohio (except the language, which she insists that we mangle horribly!).

So I put a smile on a few folks faces as I walked in. Johnathan, that I had lived up to my end of the bargain and Eunice that she got to have a little taste of "home" on Christmas Day.

And mine. I enjoy wearing my kilt and didn't shange into bifurcated garments until after we'd been to church and a famiy gathering afterwards.

[Guinness>water]

Good for you! You ought to try it every Sunday!

How bout some pictures?

[OC Richard]

I too attended church Christmas morning, and saw an Indian woman in her sari. (It's the first time I've seen an Indian person at Mass.)

I just sit in the pew: I'm not a Deacon or Eucharistic Minister or choir member or anything. The only time I've ever worn Highland Dress to my church or any other church is when I'm performing on the Highland pipes.

When I'm simply a congregant I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing a kilt, as it would draw attention to myself, which isn't something I desire.

[crboltz]

My husband and I also wore our Kilts on Christmas. The reason was actually very sad. My grandmother died Christmas morning. She had not been able to fly to California for our wedding, but loved the pictures (especially how we looked in our kilts). In her honor, we wore our kilts to services. There were many nice compliments, and lots of condolences.

-Chris

[eagle43172]

When I'm simply a congregant I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing a kilt, as it would draw attention to myself, which isn't something I desire.

I agree with Richard.

I think it's neat that people wear ethnic attire in public. My church has a Korean community that never misses an opportunity to dress in their Hanbok. I wear Scottish attire 2 or 3 times a year, but I always ask my parish priest before hand. I am an usher and lector but Father always asks that I not do anything official when in the kilt (I suppose if there were 20 or 30 of us in kilts it would be different, but there are only 2 kilt wearers in the parish and we never seem to coordinate). His reasoning (which I agree with) is that the focus should be on the Liturgy of the Mass, not on the reader/usher in the kilt. I have never gotten a negative comments from fellow church goers.

[Jaggy thistle]

Why would you want to change out of the kilt

[McFarkus]

Good for you! I wear my kilt to church every Sunday. The only time anyone has commented has been the very few occasions I haven't worn the kilt.

[Nighthawk]

Good for you! I wear my kilt to church every Sunday. The only time anyone has commented has been the very few occasions I haven't worn the kilt.

Same here. Actually, almost "same here." People don't comment when I'm just wearing a nice shirt, hose, kilt, daywear sporran, etc- what I call dressy casual. It's when I go all out, like at the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, that anyone seems to take notice. But then, it's no more than any of the other ethnicities get. We have a lot of Hispanics in our parish, and a lot of them dress in their ethnic clothing, as well. It's only when we all kick it up a notch that anyone seems to take any notice at all.

[Mark Stephenson]

I too wore a kilt and Argyle tweed jacket & waistcoat to our Christmas Eve services. I got many nice comments. The best happened after the service was over and a woman with two young daughters came up to me. Her daughters were about 5-7 years old, I think. She said she was a MacGregor and that she wanted her daughters to see a man in a kilt. In fact, she had them in kilted skirts. She very much appreciated me taking the time to talk to her daughters and explain my attire.

[grizzbass]

that's great. The way a person dresses for church should not be for the intent to call attention to the individual or disrupt the service but when it is to honor the lord and to express a love for family, heritage and the community it can only be a positive thing.