One of Mojang's ways of saying thank-yous to those who help improve Minecraft seems to be giving their accounts capes. Mojang staff have capes. Some of the mod developers whose mods have been added to the game have capes. Those who turned up to Minecon have capes.
The latest addition is a special translator's cape. These have been given to 29 randomly selected contributors to the Minecraft translation community that provides us Minecraft in languages like Pirate speak and Quenya (as well as less common languages like French and Spanish).
Sorontar
ps. 'Sorontar' is Quenya in case you are not a native speaker