Burlap vs. Sackcloth

(US) A very strong, coarse cloth, made from jute, flax, or hemp, and used to make sacks etc.

A coarse fabric, made of jute or hemp, used for bagging; also, a finer variety of similar material, used for curtains, etc.

coarse jute fabric

coarse canvas woven from jute, hemp, or a similar fibre, used especially for sacking

Example: ‘a burlap sack’;

lighter material of a kind similar to burlap, used in dressmaking and furnishing

Example: ‘a burlap shirt’; ‘fabrics ranging from hessians to burlaps’;

A coarse hessian style of cloth used to make sacks.

Garments worn as an act of penance.

Example: ‘After he realised the gravity of his crime he spent some time wearing sackcloth and ashes.’;

Linen or cotton cloth such as sacks are made of; coarse cloth; anciently, a cloth or garment worn in mourning, distress, mortification, or penitence.

Example: ‘Gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner.’; ‘Thus with sackcloth I invest my woe.’;

a garment made of coarse sacking; formerly worn as an indication of remorse

a coarse cloth resembling sacking

Sackcloth (Hebrew: שַׂק‎ śaq) is a coarsely woven fabric, usually made of goat's hair. The term in English often connotes the biblical usage, where the Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible remarks that haircloth would be more appropriate rendering of the Hebrew meaning.In some Christian traditions (notably Catholicism), the wearing of hairshirts continues as a self-imposed means of mortifying the flesh that is often practiced during the Christian penitential season of Lent, especially on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and other Fridays of the Lenten season.