Why do Popes wear the little white hat?
The hat is a small, hemispherical, form-fitting ecclesiastical skullcap worn by clerics of various Catholic churches, the Syriac Orthodox Church and by the higher clergy in Anglicanism. There are many names for what the hat is called but it is mostly referred to as the skull hat and zucchettos in Italy.
The different types of zucchetto
The zucchetto is a part of the Pope’s uniform. Its name comes from Italian ‘zucchetta’, the diminutive of zucca – meaning gourd or, by extension, head. It symbolises the rank or the position of the person when wearing it. The Pope wears a white version, cardinals wear red ones and the purple one is reserved for bishops. It was worn hundreds of years ago by members of the clergy when they took a vow of celibacy.
Popes wear the zucchetto for many reasons. One being that, when they took the vow of celibacy, a ring of hair was cut off. So to cover their head, they wore the hats to retain body temperature. Today, it is obligatory to wear the zucchetto as part of the Papal garb. The second reason is to have something out there other than the tall mitre hat – that is why we see the Pope in the zucchetto more often.
