[Ansteorra] Veiling

[SoldierGrrrl]

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 4:59 AM, John Atkinson <johnmatkinson at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 1:51 PM, Maria Buchanan <scarlettmb at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> You MUST be talking about an Orthodox Catholic church.  I have never heard of a RC church in America denying communion to a woman who didn't have her hair covered.
>
> It's not a rule for the Orthodox either.

I think perhaps she meant the Eastern Catholic Churches?

> Speaking of which, let me address that for the Orthodox.  A lot
> depends on precisely how conservative that particular parish
> is--almost all the older women would have their hair covered, and many
> of the younger do it as a personal expression of piety.  There's not,
> at least in the parishes I attended, any pressure other than a little
> peer pressure.  Of course, a Greek grandmother's idea of 'a little
> peer pressure' can be a little .  . . unsubtle

Yia-Yias being unsubtle?  Say it isn't so!  (I love the ladies at our
parish, but wow...they can be very persuasive.)

> However, to veer sharply back to a discussion of Period cultures, I
> can pretty much say that for the East, the only time you see an adult
> woman without a head covering depicted in art, would be:
>
> Young women/girls
> dancers/acrobats/actors/prostitutes (these categories blur
> considerably in Byzantine urban culture)
> Empresses (who wear crowns)
> Depictions of rural peasant young women doing manual labor for which
> head coverings would be impractical.

Although I don't remember seeing too much art depicting women in their
private chambers, I'm assuming that women would not have their hair
covered in their homes, around their families?

> Our written evidence supports this conclusion pretty strongly as well.
>
> Certainly at a formal event, to include a religious service, pre-1600,
> any woman barring an Empress wearing a crown, would have their heads
> covered anywhere in Eastern Europe.

Would an empress have worn a crown during a liturgy?

Helene Dalassene (Yes, we live in the same house, and have these
discussions IRL as well as online...)
-- 
Blonde.  It's not just a hair color; it's a way of life.

http://soldiergrrrl.livejournal.com/