Wedding Veil
Why?

Brides in ancient Rome had an interesting hairstyle, with the hair twisted and waxed into a punk-like spike. This was to defend her head from little horned demons, keeping her pure for her husband.

Tsunokakushi
Post-Edo period wedding headdress

Curiously, Japanese tradition is almost the opposite. With a white wedding kimono, instead of a veil the bride wears a tsuno kakushi. Tsuno means 'horns' and the purpose of wearing this headdress was to veil her horns of jealousy, ego and selfishness - attributes that should not be displayed at a wedding in front of the groom and his family. It symbolized her resolve to become a gentle, obedient wife. Also in those days, hair was thought to be unclean so people wore a headdress to hide it.

Uchikatsugi
Worn by higher class ladies

Wataboshi
Pre-Edo period wedding headdress

Until the end of the Edo period in 1867, brides wore a wataboshi hood which was supposed to conceal the bride's face to everyone except the groom.

Both the tsuno kakushi and the wataboshi are still used at traditional, non-Western style weddings in Japan.

Other traditional Japanese headdresses include the uchikatsugi; a long veiled headdress worn by high class ladies to protect their anonymity. It was not usually worn as a wedding veil; simply normal street wear for the nobility. (Probably also protected them from mosquitoes.)

A hat similar to wataboshi, but made of knitted straw, is called amigasa. The history of this hat is obscure, but some say the original dancers performed before royalty and therefore they would hide their faces out of modesty. Now it is worn by dancers at many festivals all over Japan.

The girl wearing an amigasa (below) is dancing at a festival in Tohoku in 2005 (see YouTube video on the right). The festival dates from the 13th Century when a priest called Genshin commanded villagers to dance in the Zao Gongen temple grounds to pray for a good harvest. The dance evolved into a folk dance and is accompanied by music and singing, which also evolved with rather agrestic and bawdy lyrics. For this reason, the festival was banned in the Taisho Era (1912-1926) but later revived and continues to be celebrated each summer.

Amigasa
Don't even think about wearing one of these for your wedding!

Hikosa Zukin
Here's another piece of headgear seen at the same festival. The three-day event is held just after o-bon, when people remember their ancestors, hence the macabre black cloth.

Whoopi Goldberg as Sister Mary Clarence



Sister Helen Prejean
http://www.prejean.org/

Compare the wataboshi with a nun's wimple. 'To take the veil' means to become a nun, and this phrase can be traced back to 1325. The wimple was common in biblical times (see Isaiah 3:22 and Ruth 3:15) and popular in Europe during the Middle Ages. Nuns adopted the style at that time to make them inconspicuous in the world.

(Other references to 'veil' in the Bible.)

For this reason, and especially since Vatican II, many nuns today forgo wearing the distinctive uniform and wear normal 'street clothes' to help them become a part of the community instead of distancing themselves. A common stereotype of a nun's attire was worn by Whoopi Goldberg as Delores in the movie Sister Act, but a more accurate image of today's nun was shown by Susan Sarandon who played Sister Helen Prejean in the movie Dead Man Walking.

This is not common to all cultures however. Some orders, the Bridgettine nuns for example, retain the wimple and Pope Benedict XVI's apparent hard right turn may try to persuade more nuns to return to that style. We'll see.

Although veils may have been an Eastern tradition carried West by the early Crusaders and to a lesser extent along the Silk Road, the wimple is quite European. Most women, whether religious or not, wore one as part of normal clothing, along with a dress or skirt.

For a wedding, the clothing naturally became more special, with finer cloths and more embroidery. The bride's wimple was also more refined than the normal daily garb. Indeed, during the 1600s, the bride wore a conical headdress from which trailed a full-length veil.

It's commonly believed that it is bad luck for groom to see his bride in her dress before the ceremony, and therefore a veil was used to conceal her. In fact, in the old days of arranged marriages, the groom rarely saw his bride at all before the wedding day. If she was ugly, a veil might have stopped him from running away.



But everyone knows there's no such thing as an ugly bride. A bride is always somewhere between 'very pretty' and 'absolutely gorgeous'. Veiling the bride is a symbolic way of tantalizing the groom by concealing her beauty until he becomes her husband and is permitted to see her.

When something is prohibited or difficult to have, it often seems more attractive and thrilling. A short skirt can seduce men more than a swimsuit. Why? Because covering the tops of the legs (just), sets off the man's imagination. Intention and context make the eroticism, not the amount of exposed skin. This was the simple psychology that made the dance of the seven veils so seductive.

As mentioned above, one purpose of the wedding veil was to conceal the bride from demons. Family and friends were aware that the veiled figure standing next to the groom was the bride, but it fooled the goblins. The superstition was so strong that families even supplied bridesmaids as decoys. These maids would not wear veils but would be dressed attractively and prepared to sacrifice their souls if required. Superstitious nonsense maybe, but the tradition continues to this day.

The original idea of the veil was to conceal the bride and protect her from demons. But that is the last thing in the mind of today's bride, who wears the veil as an accessory to the gorgeous dress.

Just as there are many dress styles, there are many different types of veil. Which type is most suitable for you? See Choosing the Right Veil

Having spent hours deliberating which veil suits your dress, it's rather disappointing to realise the veil will only be used for a few minutes. Once the groom has lifted the veil, all eyes are on the bride's shining face.

Lifting the veil is like lifting the dustsheet from a new sculpture in an art gallery. By definition, an unveiling ceremony is only done once and especially for a wedding it should be executed most elegantly. See How to Lift the Veil

So now you're married and thinking about starting a family. You may have heard about babies being 'born with a veil' and wondered what that means.

Sometimes, though not often, a thin foetal membrane (the amniotic sac) envelops or partly covers the baby at birth, especially in premature births. This membrane, called a caul, is harmless and easily removed by the midwife. Since the baby born in a caul has not drawn its first breath, there is no immediate danger of suffocation or drowning. Indeed, in medieval Europe, being born in a caul was a sign of good luck, especially against drowning. It is mentioned a couple of times in Grimms' Fairy Tales: The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs and Hans in luck.

But back to the original question posed on this page: Does a pagan wedding veil have any place in a Christian wedding ceremony?

Absolutely YES!

The veil has no more pagan meaning than it has Christian meaning. It is not a religious symbol but simply a lovely enhancement to the bride's attire. The wedding ceremony is celebrating the joining of two hearts in love. It is the most wonderful day for the couple, their families and friends. It is the day when people want to look their finest, and the veil is a decoration that helps this.

So wear your veil, look beautiful, and show the world that you have found a loving partner, a friend with whom you can share the rest of your life.