# Why do Catholic school girls have to wear plaid skirts? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 15, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427 "2008-05-15T13:42:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427/101 "2008-05-20T13:44:42Z")
[QUOTE=guizot] Why would you say that? [/QUOTE] [Clue.](http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/pirates/web_op/pirates13.html) ---
**Author:** ![ArizonaTeach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@ArizonaTeach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArizonaTeach)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427/102 "2008-05-20T13:49:02Z")
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool] That’s ridiculous. One might even call it infernal nonsense! [/QUOTE] Well, hardly ever. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427/103 "2008-05-20T14:59:32Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] [Clue.](http://math.boisestate.edu/gas/pirates/web_op/pirates13.html) [/QUOTE] That was my first thought (see post #75), but I’m open to ambiguity, and you’ve gotta love a vestment called “hokey pokey.” ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2008, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427/104 "2008-05-20T17:29:11Z")
[QUOTE=guizot] That was my first thought (see post #75), but I’m open to ambiguity, and you’ve gotta love a vestment called “hokey pokey.” [/QUOTE] My use of the phrase “infernal nonsense” was definitely a Gilbert and Sullivan pinafore reference. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427/105 "2008-05-21T02:48:02Z")
[QUOTE=guizot] That was my first thought (see post #75), but I’m open to ambiguity, and you’ve gotta love a vestment called “hokey pokey.” [/QUOTE] That’s odd. 😕 I could have sworn the hokey pokey was something done in private late at night. At least, from my limited experience. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427/106 "2008-05-21T15:01:06Z")
[QUOTE=Siam Sam] That’s odd. 😕 I could have sworn the hokey pokey was something done in private late at night. [/QUOTE] I think my grandfather used that kind of expression. I’m familiar with it from an _X-Files_ episode–it was a creepy song that got played over and over again in some kind of haunted house. The expression by itself is funny to me, but to use it to name a piece of clothing is over the top. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427/107 "2008-05-22T03:13:26Z")
[QUOTE=guizot] I think my grandfather used that kind of expression. [/QUOTE] Harrumph! :mad: GET OFF MY LAWN! ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427/108 "2008-05-22T13:39:52Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] 😃 Yeah, it sucks when the answer is incredibly mundane. I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a fellow named Richard who actually met Gerald Gardner, the father of modern Wicca. Richard told me the (apocryphal?) tale of having a conversation where he was really excited to finally ask Gardner why there are always two candles on the altar during Wiccan workings. Lots of hypotheses had been tossed about (they represent The Goddess and The God, or the Moon and the Sun or the Light and the Dark or…) but no one really knew for sure - it wasn’t part of the knowledge passed down. Gardner apparently looked slightly confused at the question and said, “Well, you see, back in Highcliffe, the shop down the corner sold candles in packs of two…” 😃 [/QUOTE] Interestingly enough, if rather off-topic for this thread. . . I attended an informal worship service with impromptu altar last night. And I thought about your post, because sure enough, there were two candles on the altar and a cross and maybe something else(well, a firestarter, but I don’t think that counts). Now, this was not a Wiccan altar–this was a Christian altar (United Methodist variety). Still, I know why there were candles, and two is the number I would expect, but if there is any symbolism to there being exactly two, I don’t know it. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2008, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427/109 "2008-05-22T13:57:55Z")
[QUOTE=Eureka] …if there is any symbolism to there being exactly two, I don’t know it. [/QUOTE] Exactly. And, since the OP was hoping for a big deep meaning or association, not entirely off-topic (although close). Sometimes, a thing just is out of tradition. Who was it that wrote about the recipe for a baked ham beginning with “cut off the shank”? She had always done it that way, her mother had always done it that way, her grandmother had always done it that way…because her great-grandmother had a small wood stove, and a whole ham wouldn’t fit! She had to cut the shank off to bake the ham, and her daughters and their daughters just kept on doing it because that’s how they were taught! Sometimes there’s a good reason for a thing (like why nun’s habits were designed as they were), and sometimes it’s just because we’re creatures of (heh) habit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-catholic-school-girls-have-to-wear-plaid-skirts/449427.md?page=5)