Ok... this has been bouncing around in the back of my head for a while now, and I'm finally remembering to ask (it's one of those 3am nursing session "oh yeah I was going to ask..." things 
).
I often see threads discussing head covering (why, how, what, when, who, etc) in different faiths. Generally it's from a Jewish, Moslem, or Christian perspective. Now, I'm not a member of any of those faiths. However, I know from my studies (history, anthropology) that over the ages women in many cultures have covered their hair in one way or another for one reason or another, and certainly many of these cultures did not practice one of the previously mentioned religions.
Although the modern pagan movement often seems to thrive on creating a patchwork of different historic (and modern) traditions, there are pagan groups that strive to recreate a historic religion as closely as possible ("recon" faiths, many of which advocate learning the language and crafts of the people with whom the religion started). But I don't know that I've ever heard of a pagan group, recon or not, that had adopted or maintained the tradition of head covering.
But it seems like such an obvious and, well, simple tradition to encorporate (simple in that you don't need expensive tools, lots of time, huge personal artistic talent or flare with languages, etc and obvious since on the one hand there's clear cultural precedent and on the other it has the potential to be much more visible than a pentacle or ankh necklace). So I'm curious... anyone out there practice a pagan path in which you've included covering? Or belong to a recon faith where covering is encouraged? Thanks!
Just to be clear, I'm using "pagan" here to indicate religions and faiths that some people would categorize as "neo-pagan"... not "pagan" in the sense of "non-christian". For example, one of my Indian Hindu friends covers her hair (she also wears only saris... and she is an IT computer guru so she crawls around under desks a lot... I have no idea how she does it!) but I'm not really thinking along those lines.
).I often see threads discussing head covering (why, how, what, when, who, etc) in different faiths. Generally it's from a Jewish, Moslem, or Christian perspective. Now, I'm not a member of any of those faiths. However, I know from my studies (history, anthropology) that over the ages women in many cultures have covered their hair in one way or another for one reason or another, and certainly many of these cultures did not practice one of the previously mentioned religions.
Although the modern pagan movement often seems to thrive on creating a patchwork of different historic (and modern) traditions, there are pagan groups that strive to recreate a historic religion as closely as possible ("recon" faiths, many of which advocate learning the language and crafts of the people with whom the religion started). But I don't know that I've ever heard of a pagan group, recon or not, that had adopted or maintained the tradition of head covering.
But it seems like such an obvious and, well, simple tradition to encorporate (simple in that you don't need expensive tools, lots of time, huge personal artistic talent or flare with languages, etc and obvious since on the one hand there's clear cultural precedent and on the other it has the potential to be much more visible than a pentacle or ankh necklace). So I'm curious... anyone out there practice a pagan path in which you've included covering? Or belong to a recon faith where covering is encouraged? Thanks!
Just to be clear, I'm using "pagan" here to indicate religions and faiths that some people would categorize as "neo-pagan"... not "pagan" in the sense of "non-christian". For example, one of my Indian Hindu friends covers her hair (she also wears only saris... and she is an IT computer guru so she crawls around under desks a lot... I have no idea how she does it!) but I'm not really thinking along those lines.
) and I keep coming back to the way in which head covering has been used in ancient cultures as a mark of social standing unrelated (in many cases) to religion or codes of modesty. So married versus single, common versus noble, mundane versus, well, spiritual. 
)
Follow Mothering