Figure 5.--Here English Catholic boys are involved in a procession as part of their First Communion celebration. The snapshot is undated, but looks like the 1940s. |
We do not yetvhave much information on English First Communion outfits during the early-20th century. We note boys commonly wearing short pants suits, in some cases white suits bought, especially for the ceremony. We see this during the 1940s and 50s. We have found both a few individual portraits, as well as school photographs. Many Catholic children attended separate Catholic schools. In some cases the boys, like the boy on the previous page, are wearing white knee socks. This was, however, not as common as in America and Germany. This is interesting as regards America because knee socks in genral were not nearly as common as in England. In other cases they are wearing white ankle socks like the boys here in 1969 (figure 1). Our English archive is fairly limited. We have found some images during the second-half of the 20th century. We note one school which had the boys wear basically their school uniform with a few white touches. This would have been very inexpensive for the parents. This would have been helpful for working-class families. All parents had to do was to buy the white socks and footwear. The girls wear the standard junior wedding dresses commonly worn in many countries for First Communion. Unlike the boys;' outfit, this would have been an expensive purchase and one the girls would not have worn for other occassions. Some times regular shoes and sandals were worn. The boy on the previous page in 1973 is a good example, probably another school outfit. For this outfit the parents would probably just have to buy the white socks as ordinary colored sandals were used.
We do not yetvhave much information on English First Communion outfits during the early-20th century.
We suspect that boys wore white suits fir First Communion in the 1930s, but do not yet have any supporting evidence. We do not know just when this conventioin began, perhaps in the 1920s. We hope to lear more as we expand our English archive.
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We note boys commonly wearing short pants suits, in some cases white suits bought, especially for the ceremony. We see this during the 1940s and 50s. We have found portraits showing that white suits were woirn, although we also see boys wearing other short pants suits and even their school uniforms. We believe this was primarily a finction of economics. Many English Catholiv families were working-class families awhich may not have been able to afford a suit which would just be worn for the First Communuion ceremony or a few other special occassions. Another factor is that Britain was bankrupt after World War II (1939-45). The country was in such despeate conditions that Britain had to continue World War II ratrioning into the 1950s. And the Labour Party socialist reforms adversely affected the country's economic recovery. As a result, Britain which had been the most affluent country in Europe, lagged far behind the post-War European Economic Miracle. Families whatever their economic condition, seemed more disposed to splurge on their daugters than sons as regards First Communion. It was very common to find all the girls wearing white junior wedding dresses. Many English Catholics were Irish immigrant families. Many Catholic children attended separate Catholic schools. In some cases the boys, like the boy on the previous page, are wearing white knee socks. This was, however, not as common as in America and Germany. This is interesting as regrds America because knee socks in genral were not nearly as common as in England.
We do not yet have much information on First Communion celebrations during the 1950s. We see a boy in the 1950s wearing a white short pants suit with white knee socks. Our English archive is fairly limited. We have found some images during the second-half of the 20th century. We note one school which had the boys wear basically their school uniform with a few white touches. This would have been very inexpensive for the parents. This would have been helpful for working-class families. All parents had to do was to buy the white socks and footwear. The girls wear the standard junior wedding dresses commonly worn in many countries for First Communion. Unlike the boys;' outfit, this would have been an expensive purchase and one which the girls would not have worn for other occassions. Some times regular shoes and sandals were worn. We notice a rather formal event in 1952. The children were 7 years old, but there is no indication as to where the event took place other than it looks to be the front of a church.
We see more informality in the 1960s, at least for the boys. Many schools in the 1960s began having the boys do their first communion with out expensive suits. This was the bginning of a trend way from suits. After the 60s we see far fewer boys wearing suits than was the case in the first half of the century. Rather we see see the boys just wearing white short with their school short pants. We see the boys at an inidentified school all dressed alike (1969). We continue, however, to see the girls wearing the classic junior wedding dresses. Note the boys are not wearing suits, but just white shirts and grey shorts which they probably already owned. All bothers had to buy were white shoes or sandls and perhaps white ankle socks. Not having to buy white suits substantially reduced the cost of outfitting the boys for First Communion. And we do not see three boys wearing white shoes and sandals as we saw in the 1940s and 50s. Although the girls are still wearing junior wedding dresses. Note the boys are wearing white ankle socks and not knee socks. We see this in the 1940s as well. Knee socks were commonly worn in England, but not white knee socks. Even white ankle so cks were not that very common. This was probably because white socks were generally associatd with girls in England. Many English schools has the girls wearing white socks as part of their school uniforms. We also begin to see fewer boys wearing short pants in the 1960s. at first it as just older boys, but by the end of the decade we even begin to see fewer younger boyy wearing short pants.
The boy on the main English First Communion page is another a good example (1973). This is probably another school outfit. For this outfit the parents would probably just have to buy the white socks as ordinary colored double-bar sandals were used.
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