Figure 1.-- Here we see altar boys participting in a procession or some open-air service. The photo was taken on Capri. They wear the traditional clothing for altar boys in Italy: red cassocks and white surplice. The photo was taken during the summer and shows the present-day trend in boys' footwear. One boy wears sneakers and the other one wears sandals. After a time when most boys wore sneakers, in recent years sandals are more and more worn. The convention is now that sandals must be worn always without socks, in formal occasions too.

I am not sure how the costume of altar boys has varied over time. Boys in the modern age wore black or red cassocks and white surplices. In Italy traditionally altar boys wear black or red cassock (talare) and surplice (cotta). The boys on the previous page in cassocks and albs are altar boys participating in a religious procession. Here we see an altar boy wearing a black cassock and white surplice (figure 1). Their dress looks identical to that worn by Catholic altar boys in America. Notice that unlike the priest there is no hat or cap for the boys. An Italian reader tells us, "I remember reading about an altar boy in the 1930s. He lived in Staggia, a village near Florence. He tells that as a boy he went always barefoot in summer. The shoes were only for Sunday and festivity days. In that time there was not the Mass in the afternoon, but the people prayed Rosary and than the priest gave the blessing. He often was in church in the afternoon without footwear, but he also served as altar boy. Some "devote woman" reproached him for his bare feet, but the parish priest allowed him to serve." This a boy's feet are all that showed under the altar boy outfit, it is the only modern bit of fashion destinguishing the boys over time.

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Created: 11:26 PM 12/12/2007
Last updated: 11:26 PM 12/12/2007