Sunday best?

[planemaker]

If you think the level of dress at regular church has gone down, you should go to a funeral. My wife to be and I went to one not too long ago and people were wearing shorts and t-shirts, base ball caps!!!

[knotty]

I have found it more necessary to dress-down a little so as to fit the growing informality of Sunday morning. The neat thing a out the kilt is its versatility.

I guess this is part Im unsure about. If I wore my Utilikilt, sandals & a polo shirt I would be wearing equivalent to what everyone else was wearing. There is no way I would do that. I guess I have to get use to the fact that a argyll jacket & waistcoat is equivalent to a 3 piece suit, which is something I was comfortable wearing.

[knotty]

... how about my full mask raccoon?
I dont have a plain leather sporran yet. My next kilty purchase will likely be a black "Rob Roy", or something similar.

[knotty]

... one should not do something because that is what everyone else does.
John

Well said

What Ive always thought.

[Peter Crowe]

... how about my full mask raccoon?
I dont have a plain leather sporran yet. My next kilty purchase will likely be a black "Rob Roy", or something similar.

Although I am not personally fond of them, a full mask sporran is appropriate with any level of kilt formality, and would be suitable for Church (at least in the sense of customary THCD).

[knotty]

If you think the level of dress at regular church has gone down, you should go to a funeral. My wife to be and I went to one not too long ago and people were wearing shorts and t-shirts, base ball caps!!!

The last funeral I went to I saw all that plus a lady who looked like she was going to work ... at the closest light post! At least she had the legs for it

[madmacs]

If you think the level of dress at regular church has gone down, you should go to a funeral. My wife to be and I went to one not too long ago and people were wearing shorts and t-shirts, base ball caps!!!

Ditto for weddings... Even seeing a tie in the midwest is a rarity, especially on folks under 50

[okiwen]

I have worn a kilt to church for the last four times. I do not where a sporran but i do wear a jacket and a tie as I would with a normal suit. I was raised to dress appropriately for church and have done the same for all my children. I hope they will teach their kids the same. In the down fall of the family we have lost much in society.

[AKScott]

I think it is finding the middle ground between the level of dress you can expect everyone else to be in, and something that fits your comfort zone with respect to your own self.

Jesus did say to give the best seats in the house to the poor, I think in either Luke or John, not Matthew and I don't think that passage is in Mark. Any road, outside of Easter or Christmas Eve if I am kilted I'll go with a long sleeve collared shirt and a tie - and lay on the color contrasts - but save the jacket and chained sporran for the higher attendance, more widely celebrated events.

I agree that the falling away of the concept of Sunday best is lamentable; but I think how well dressed we are on the outside isn't the point of the exercise..

[Chas]

The answer to this question is complex and quite simple at the same time.

So as not to contravene Rule 5, I will keep this to historical fact.

Judeo-Christian history was (and still is) very heavy on cleanliness. 'Wash my sins away'; 'washing the feet of the disciples'; 'cleanliness is next to Godliness' - the bible is full of references to washing, cleaning, cleansing and even shriving. The central pillar - the Eucharist service - is all about coming before one's God in a pure state, without the taint or mark of sin. In effect, clean in mind and body.

So this idea of cleanliness is in the collective race memory. And we do things because our parents did them and their parents before them.

We only have to go back a mere 100 years (or less) to a time when people took only one bath a week. For the majority of people that was the day before the weekly church service. They would then put on their only other set of clothes.

I believe the very simple answer to why people no longer wear 'Sunday Best', is that they don't need to - they have indoor plumbing now. They no longer have to demonstrate to the world that they are 'clean in mind and body', because it is taken for granted that their bodies are clean.

Regards

Chas