page_title: Veil
section_title: Veiling by women
hierarchical_section_title: Veil / Veiling and religion / Christianity / Veiling by women
caption_attribution_description: Te Deum. Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church. Yelizarovo, Orekhovo-Zuyevsky District, Moscow Oblast (Guslitsa) / Молитва во время старообрядческого (РПСЦ) пасхального крестного хода в деревне Елизарово (Гуслицы), Орехово-Зуевского района, 02 мая 2008 г.
context_page_description: A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has been prominent in different forms in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The practice of veiling is especially associated with women and sacred objects, though in some cultures it is men rather than women who are expected to wear a veil. Besides its enduring religious significance, veiling continues to play a role in some modern secular contexts, such as wedding customs.
context_section_description: Traditionally, in Christianity, women were enjoined to cover their heads in church, just as it was (and still is) customary for men to remove their hat as a sign of respect. Wearing a veil (also known as a headcovering) is seen as a sign of humility before God, as well as a reminder of the bridal relationship between Christ and the church. This practice is based on 1 Corinthians 11:4–16 in the Christian Bible, where St. Paul writes:
  Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God. Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
  In Western Europe and North America at the start of the 20th century, women in most mainstream Christian denominations wore head coverings during church services (often in the form of a scarf, cap, veil or hat). These included many Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian Churches. In these denominations, the practice now continues in isolated parishes where it is seen as a matter of etiquette, courtesy, tradition or fashionable elegance.  
  Christian veiling is still practiced, especially among those who wear plain dress, such as Conservative Quakers and many Anabaptists (including Mennonites, Hutterites, Old German Baptist Brethren, Apostolic Christians and Amish). Moravian females wear a lace headcovering called a haube, especially when serving as dieners. Many Holiness Christians who practice the doctrine of outward holiness, also practice headcovering, in addition to the Laestadian Lutheran Church, the Plymouth Brethren, and the more conservative Scottish and Irish Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed churches. Traditionalist Catholics still follow it, generally as a matter of custom and biblically approved aptness; some also suppose that St. Paul's directive is in full force today as an ordinance of its own right, despite the teaching of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's pronouncement on the matter, which stated that practice of headcovering for women was a matter of ecclesiastical discipline and not of Divine law;
  In many traditional Eastern Orthodox Churches, and in some conservative Protestant churches as well, the custom continues of women covering their heads in church (or even when praying privately at home).
caption: Women of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church wearing Christian headcoverings
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