Lappets

Learned an excellent new word this morning – Lappet.

The Lappets are the thingies that hang down from the back of a mitre.

Comments

  1. I hesitate (not for too long though) to ask what prompted the learning of this particular word.

    My wife suggests it is a desire to educate. 🙂

  2. kelvin says

    Well, I discovered the word lappets whilst being distracted from the task of looking up suitable ceremonial for the Requiem on Thursday. The word was in the in this phrase: “remove [the mitre] sideways so that you do not hit the bishop in the face with the lappets ”

    As luck would have it, I’ve just taken a wedding which involved people in Norwegian dress and on at least one of the participants, lappets were sighted. The word applies whatever hat they hang from – mitre or otherwise.

  3. Alice says

    What is the name of this fantastic book? All practising Anglians should have one to get order back into the ceremonial.

  4. kelvin says

    Alice

    Take a look at the customary for the Church of the Advent, Boston. (http://www.theadvent.org/customry/index.htm)

    You will find the advice on removing mitres sideways in the section on how to be a bishop’s chaplain.

    The advice on that page is based on Ritual Notes, 11th ed. (ECR Lamburn), and The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described (Fortescue and O’Connell). I suspect that the comment about flying lappets is all their own.

  5. If the pages I have looked at so far are anything to go by (the thurifer and MC) this site is a wonderful resource.

  6. So on an Australian’s hat the corks are actually lappets then? It probably wouldn’t be the done thing to smack a bishop in the face with a cork I suppose! Every day is indeed a school day.

  7. kelvin says

    Well Gary, now you put me on the spot. Strictly, a lappet is a decorative flap or loose fold on a garment or headdress. I’m not prepared to rule on whether the corks on aussie hats are indeed lappets. There are Australian readers of this blog who can answer that question for themselves.

    (However, I might be forced to concede that two thingies made from cork hanging from a mitre would indeed most certainly be lappets)

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