Going out in public

Yes, from the fiction.

However, the fiction drew the wearing of a simple brown robe from historical monastic orders.

I have actually seen a TOTJO ceremony first hand. The participants were not dressed in any sort of attire that had anything to do with the fiction. I on the other hand, for all my bluster about legitimacy and professionalism, was dressed up in what I feel to be my "ceremonial" outfit. Irony.

Fair enough.

If that is the case...I know plenty of monastics and priests who wear their cassocks out in public (regardless of weather).

They seem to be practicing their religion with ease...why so much different for the "jedi."???

Further...I do medieval re-enactment...and I have worn (tonight in fact, and its 98 out now) full monastic robes over steel armor and chainmail - no issues.

The problem is in the mind...release your attachment to such ideals of what is the "norm."

For me, as I said, is a question of professionalism.

People, unfortunately make snap judgements. I find the stigma associated with the simple act of calling oneself Jedi to be enough of a battle, I also don't want to further complicate things by alienating myself from those I would serve by being odd.

I am a member of ARMA, a historic European Marital arts group, but we do not dress in period attire when we do what we do, we have a modern martial arts uniform that helps to separate us from people that seek to be re creationists or larpers.

While we should be proud and not be ashamed of our religious expression, dressing up in robes is not "required" and there fore unnecessary.

That is not to say YOU should not wear a robe. Practical things those, especially if you are handy enough to sew in lots of pockets.

The modern day equivalent of "poor person's clothing" is a t-shirt and jeans. Historically it has been a plain robe. If you want to display humbleness, a simple life, etc then the t-shirt and jeans you already have are probably your "monk's robes". You could make an iron-on transfer of your favorite jedi logo or jedi symbol and add it to your robes for about $1 and some kind of printer to print it.

On the other hand, the robe in that photo I posted is probably a Qing dynasty emperor's robe. It costs $400 from that website. An authentic one would cost into the tens of thousands of dollars. I think you could make one yourself for about $50 in material.

In this day and age, you can get almost any clothing you want and you can probably afford it so... for $400 you can get a lightweight, breatheable, waterproof, windproof, warm thermal insulation, gore-tex, removable hood, triple-stitched, armpit-zipper opening, back ventet, self-wicking, machine-washable jacket. Something like this:



And I've been wearing it for 13 years. The first one lasted 10yrs and then it was replaced with a new one for free on a lifetime warrany :woohoo:

Andy Spalding wrote: People, unfortunately make snap judgements. I find the stigma associated with the simple act of calling oneself Jedi to be enough of a battle, I also don't want to further complicate things by alienating myself from those I would serve by being odd.

Yes...it is VERY unfortunate I agree. However, there are christian's in Syria this very day who are dying for their faith and system of beliefs. Are Jedi so less in their convictions that they care?

Where there is doubt, faith.

Is this not part of The Creed? Are Jedi not bound to it? Are such things not a symbol of this faith?

While we should be proud and not be ashamed of our religious expression, dressing up in robes is not "required" and there fore unnecessary.

I absolutely agree. "Required" is a strong word for sure, nor would I advocate that it should be such. My point though is that the reason for not wearing such attire seems to come from a realm of fear and ignorance, not from a faith in peace and knowledge.

JohnsonMD wrote:
Where there is doubt, faith.

Is this not part of The Creed? Are Jedi not bound to it? Are such things not a symbol of this faith?

Last I checked, it was not.

Are plastic toy light sabers also not "symbols" of the faith?

They are symbols of a science fiction writer that have been associated with a philosophy.

Faith and doubt have nothing to do with how you dress.

For warm weather I go with the following:
Roman sandals

quick-dry cargo pants which convert into shorts

T-Shirt

Unless of course your feel like we should advertise. My faith is a personal thing.

Andy Spalding wrote: Unless of course your feel like we should advertise. My faith is a personal thing.

I think it might be useful for us to self-identify. I like the idea of patches and/or iron-on logos. Then when you go out and you see someone with a totjo logo on their jacket you can say hi. Most people don't know the logo and would just be like "hey that's cool what is it?". However if you have a brown robe and a light saber they'll be like "Oh look a role-player jedi" and then you have to explain that you're not crazy and all that.