kittel

A surname.

A white linen or cotton robe worn by religious Ashkenazi Jews on holidays, in the synagogue, or at home when leading the Passover seder.

When I got married, my grandmother showed up at the wedding with a bottle of the whitest wine she could find, so that we wouldn’t ruin my seventy-five dollar kittel and my wife’s thousand-dollar wedding dress. (And at this point I would like to point out that I have worn my kittel at least twice a year since then, not counting the Purim that I dressed up as a doctor, and my wife has not worn her wedding dress at all, not even to other people’s weddings.)