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Dec 29th, 2019
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Actually, the custom of women covering their heads is a direct result of the Turkish and Mongol domination of the Lands of the Balkan Pennisula and Russia.
It was against the law for a woman to leave her home and appear in public with her hair un-covered. The penalty was DEATH!
If you look at the traditional dress of the women of Greece, Bulgaria and Makedonia, you see that wear huge belt buckles often the size of dinner plates. These buckles were worn by women to protect their unborn children. Turkish soldiers were told that a pregnant woman carried the "EVIL EYE" and would kick or punch a woman in the stomach in an attempt to cause her to abort the infant. These belt buckles were small sheilds that were designed to absorb and deflect the blow.
Having a woman cover her head was a matter of survival that was made into a sense of piety and nothing more!
JMHO...
mark[/QB] I was told that the Byzantine women covered their heads and that the Arabs copied the hijab from Byzantium. As you all know among Muslims there are hijabs (ie headscarf), the full-covering black outfit, and the burqa (or no covering in some areas!), depending on what area the woman is from and what sub-culture she belongs to in the larger Islamic context. As far as purely liturgical head coverings, how could Mark's assertion be true when St. Paul speaks of women covering their heads in Church? This must be a pre-Christian middle eastern thing. And don't Orthodox Jews today observe that practice? Does anyone have some sources to point us to? In Christ, anastasios
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Anastasios wrote:"...And don't Orthodox Jews today observe that practice..."
Orthodox and Hassidic women wear wigs to cover their hair from men who aren't their husbands. This custom comes from Medieval Poland where the Polish and Lithuanian nobility would "claim the right" to "take" a virgin on her wedding night instead of her husband. Orthodox brides had their hair either cut short or their head shaved entirely to make themselves "ugly" for these nobles so that they would not take these new brides to bed.
mark
the ikon writer
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Dear Mark,
Couldn't they have just covered the heads of these women completely?
I think women are cute when they wear such headcovering.
It reminds me of the Jewish girl who was told by her mother on her wedding night never to reveal herself totally to her husband. "Keep a part of yourself covered in secret," she said.
During her honeymoon, the woman's new husband bluntly asked her, "Does insanity run in your family?"
"This is the fourth night you are coming to bed with your hat on!"
Alex
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Alex my friend...
I guess it's the difference between say Celine Dionne and Sinead O'Connor...
One with gorgeous hair and the other... well...
One look at Sinead and you understand why there are monasteries like Mt.Athos....
Oppssss, guess I'll blasted for that one too!
mark
the ikon writer
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Dear Medved, I think the question everyone's hinting at is this: You're not seriously suggesting that Christians got the practice of head-covering from the Muslims, when we all know that Christianity pre-dates Islam by several centuries, are you? This is not to mention the earlier date of St. Paul's epistles. Please explain. Ghazar p.s. There's no need to explain to a person of Armenian descent about the atorcities of the Turks. Cf. http://www.theforgotten.org/intro.html http://www.geocities.com/wmwolfe_48044/personal_background.html
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One look at Sinead and you understand why there are monasteries like Mt.Athos.... I'd like to say a thing or two to Sinead O'Connor, about her comments on our Most Holy Father, John Paul II. Mark, What about the Roman Catholic practice of covering heads? This was just as prevalent in pre-V2 Roman Catholicism as it was in Orthodoxy/Eastern Catholicism, and certainly the Muslims of the Balkans didn't influence the Irish Catholics. What gives? ChristTeen287
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Dear Mark,
Still waiting.
In Christ.
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Dear Andrew
Brought you a cup of hot chocolate and danish to make your wait a little more pleasant given the weather.
Also here's a the NATIONAL ENQUIRER and THE GLOBE to give you something else to read....
mark
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Dear Brethren,
Looking at ancient testimony, we find that almost ALL of the women drawn iconographically have their heads covered. A good exception is Mary of Egypt. She has no covering, even in the icon of her life transfigured, in order to remind us that she was a whore!
Does this tell us anything of the historical nature of head coverings for females!
In Christ.
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Gosh Mr. Rubis, that was rather poignant! I like it, I like it! LOL
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Dear Athanasius,
I hope not to have scandalized anyone. Let me try again.
Interstingly, there are two common versions of the icon of Mary of Egypt. One is as I have described in my previous post. Usually, her hair is also a bit wild, just to emphasize that she flaunted and abused her God-given beauty. The other icon also portrays her "coverless" and with wild hair but goes even further by showing bare shoulders and one breast exposed!
My point is not to say that any depiction of a female iconographically without a head covering is meant to imply that the female prostituted herself, but to say that by depicting her without a head covering, a rarity, we are tipped off to find out why? Then the whole story, not just the sordid details, but her most important tranfiguration through faith and perseverance in the desert, is revealed to us.
In Christ.
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I'm a traditionalist. I guess that's why I always had trouble fitting into Protestantism though I tried for several years. I wish all women wore head coverings. I wish all men wore modest and God honoring clothing in Church. I don't know how to get either accomplished but I still wish it would happen. Both enhance the setting of worship and inspires me. Nevertheless, I will serve God whether or not modesty comes back to Church.
Dan Lauffer
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Good evening.
Way back on the first page of this topic someone wrote that all icons of Mary show her with her hair covered. When I was scheduled for a ceasarian birth, my husband found a lovely little icon in Washington D.C., a version I was told of "The Virgin of the Sign" that shows St. Mary as quite young with her hair loose around her shoulders. It served as a focus for me while being prepped for surgery and went into the operating room with us in my husband's Scrubs shirt pocket. I was able to get another one of it for a sister in law who was having trouble conceiving through Ebay from an Orthodox seller. It was said to be particularly helpful for those having difficulties in childbirth or conception.
Hilde
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Dear Hilde,
Yes, there are thousands of icons of the Mother of God, and there are some that portray her without headcovering or else with her hair exposed.
There are also numerous Western pictures that Orthodox Christians have adopted as their own and have even proclaimed as miraculous icons of Orthodoxy.
St Seraphim's Icon the "Joy of all Joys" is one such icon.
Alex
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