Figure 1.--Here we see 'jeunes communiants ŕ Orgelet (Jura)'. Orgelet is a small commune in the Jura department in Franche-Comté in eastern France. Here we see the communicants in an undated photograph. We would guess the 1920s. Here they are pictures with the priest and altar boys. (There seem to be two different groups of altar boys.) The girls wear white junior wedding dresses, many with veils. For some reason there are a lot more girls than boys. The boys wear white surplices and have baskets. We are not sure what the purpose of the baskets were, perhaps flowe pedals. Put your cursor on the image to see the rest of the group.

Some schools and churches selected religious-looking vestments for the boys. We don't see the girls wearing these oufits. We think this was because these were garments worn by priests and friars/monks and not by nuns who wore destinctive habits. They always wore white junior wedding dresses. We see boys wearing sepluses in the 1920s. As best we can tell this was rather rate, but we have only begun to address this topic. After World War II we see some boys wearing white cassocks. Some were worn earlier, but most examples we have found come after the War. This was not the most common choice, but we see quite a number of examples. When we see boys wearing these relgious garments, it seems to be always a kind of group outfit. The other outfits were often individuall selected. We see groups wearing mixed outfits. This was nor the case when the religious outfits were worn. In these cekebrations the boys were all dressed alike. We notice some boy choirs also wearing these outfits.

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Created: 8:53 PM 10/20/2011
Last edited: 8:53 PM 10/20/2011