Typical for most holidays, Labor Day evolved from its roots in trade and labor organizations to signify the end of summer for most Americans. We celebrate with picnics and pool trips as we transition from the care-free season. Old style also dictated that a woman should not wear white after Labor Day, so it seems the perfect day to address the significance of white clothing.
My Three White Dresses
A popular poem for LDS girls at baptism, “My Three White Dresses” marks the important moments for a female by the white dress she’s wearing from blessing to baptism to wedding. White signifies purity and innocence, being unspotted as the scriptures mention.
As a little baby clothed in my first white dress,
My dad held me in his arms, there to name and bless.
So pure and clean was I just then,
With time to grow and learn
About the Father’s plan for me.
My glory I must earn.
While the poem takes it a little further than I care for, I liked the tradition, and dressed my children in white for their blessings, baptisms and confirmations. But the white for me had nothing to do with their purity (I shudder thinking about purity being linked somehow to a baby or 8 year old), it was just tradition. It was just what Mormons do, just like my wedding dress was white because that’s what brides wear.
That’s what it means to me at least. As I searched for images for this post, I literally found cakes in the form of 3 white dresses for a Relief Society celebration, images of women’s actual three white dresses hung up in their living rooms as decoration and a wedding picture of a woman with her other two white dresses. Maybe it means something more?
The Uniform of the Priesthood
Lest boys feel short-changed, they have their own white to wear. White shirts (no one mentions they need to be button up, but they are nonetheless) have long been held to be the “uniform” of the priesthood and it is suggested that those participating in the priesthood duties of the sacrament wear one.
I couldn’t wait to put my son in a white shirt and tie when he was born. I loved the church tradition and found it endearing to participate although he was clearly too young to have it have any association with the priesthood.
To me, these white clothing traditions are cultural in nature and are just part of being a Mormon, but to some they represent yet one more way to cast judgments on each other: What message does it send when someone wears a blue striped shirt to church? These quirky traditions get even more interesting when people take them literally and apply them even more broadly. Some believe that all underwear should be white, that people (who are LDS but not endowed) should be buried in white, etc.
I hope that no one really believes that God would consider someone in a white dress or shirt any more unspotted from the world than anyone in a black dress or shirt. I hope that no one takes the uniform of the priesthood more seriously than the power of the ordinances they are blessed to be a part of.
How do you react to the white dress code of the church?
I think I react to the white dress code the way I react to any dress code: I understand why they’re there, but they bother me all the same. The white shirt thing is just silly. It’s a way of determining how faithful (read: obedient or conformist) somebody is, and has everything to do with judging by appearances and nothing to do with anything else. That said, I really don’t like seeing super-casual ensembles at church or in the workplace. However, a blue button-up as opposed to a white button-up is not super-casual.
When I was little, my mother made me wear white underwear on Sundays. I was allowed to wear my pink My Little Pony or Rainbow Brite underwear the rest of the week, but on Sundays, I absolutely had to wear white underwear. By the time my little sister was out of diapers, this tradition fell by the wayside, and now my mom says that I’m making it up and that there never was a white-underwear-on-Sunday rule.
What is with the white underwear thing? I’d be curious to hear from other people who have encountered it. This is the first I’ve heard about other Mormons doing a white underwear rule. I thought my mom circa 1987-1990 was the only one.
My thoughts on this particular topic were expressed in my own blog in a post titled: “White shirts are not mandatory.”
I like that post Joe. When the clothing is taken to the extreme and made more significant than the event, it goes from quirky tradition (ala green jello) to weapon of judgment. I don’t mind it when we’re in quirky tradition, but the righteousness competition I can do without.
I think it’s kind of like a loyalty/commitment test–much in the same way that dresses/skirts for women are a loyalty/commitment test. Are you willing to play the “proper” role of an LDS man or woman? If so, then you happily go along with the dress code.
But if you’re not down with playing a part, then maybe you don’t go along with it–and that says a LOT to the members of your ward about your level of commitment and your loyalty to the organization.
I’m not saying I agree with this–just saying that’s what it means (to me, anyway).
Love the pic!
As for the pic, that day was a great day.
The only time I’ve heard the white underwear rule was as a missionary – we were only allowed to wear white bras.
Wow, Chelsea. How would anyone know the color of anyone else’s underwear??
It’s still part of the sister missionary dress code – bras must be white or cream colored. I’ve also heard this about bras worn in the temple, no nude colored, but no one is really checking.
Well, Mel, I guess I just screwed up with my daughter. I sent her with one white and one nude. It looked cream to me so I said good. I was NOT thinking in terms of the word nude. Now, I see. She enters the MTC tomorrow. I am SURE that lots of her clothing in edgy anyway. She is a glamour girl and has a nice body for all kinds of really cute clothes. I told her to wear her more conservative stuff when she goes to see the Pres. We shall see.
I didn’t know anything about the white or cream colored bra rule when I was a sister missionary. I had a bunch of colored bras and none of my companions ever said anything to me about it.
I just got off the phone with my father before reading this post and he was complaining about the white shirt rule. I told me that he stopped wearing white shirts to church because he thought it rule was stupid.
My husband got tired of wearing white shirts, so he hardly does anymore.
I make it a point to wear colored shirts to Church. “The uniform of the priesthood” has taken on such a superficial meaning that I refuse to be a part of it. Often, in priesthood, I am the only person not wearing a white shirt. My morality/worthiness will stand or fall on the content of my character, not the pigment in my apparel.