It is not generally known that the tassels which are pendent
customarily from the upper part of banners and standards, and the
fringe which surrounds them are relics of the practice of observing
sacred emblems. They originated in pagan devices and the garments of
priests and were consecrated to specific forms of worship.
Sacred history is full of instances of the consecration of tassels and
peculiar fringes to special sacerdotal uses. Blue was early the emblem
of purity and innocence and that fact accounts for the predominance
of that color in the ecclesiastical badges of these early times. When
the use of the tassels passed into profane customs, they were used as
ornaments for national standards and for royal girdles, and it was not
infrequent that they were first blessed by the priests. It has followed
naturally that this use has continued up to the present time, although
now it is retained probably because of the artistic effect of the
swinging pendants.