Capirote

A capirote[1] is a Christian pointed hat of conical form that is used in Spain and Hispanic countries by members of a confraternity of penitents, particularly those of the Catholic Church.

It is part of the uniform of such brotherhoods including the Nazarenos and Fariseos during Lenten observances and reenactments during Holy Week in Spain and its former colonies, though similar hoods are common in other Christian countries such as Italy.

Pope Clement VI ordered that flagellants could perform penance only under control of the church; he decreed Inter sollicitudines ("inner concerns" for suppression).

To this day, they are still worn during the celebration of the Holy Week/Easter most notably in Andalusia, by penitentes (who perform public penance for their sins) who walk through streets with the capirote.

In the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, male Catholic penitents of the Tais-Dupol confraternity wear capirotes during Holy Week in Palo, Leyte.

According to historian Michael K. Jerryson, the capirote was appropriated by the early 20th-century American Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist and anti-Catholic group.