Thank you all for your responses. About the covering of heads all the time, I am definitely for it. It is a gesture in modesty and if we are to be constantly at prayer, it works. I find myself now that I quit working covering in all home situations more frequently, both in prayer and housework. I do admit you get some strange looks at the grocery store though, epsecially in a post 9/11 society ("hey look at the Muslim lady"), but what the heck.
As far as the covering of women's heads in Old Country Orthodox countries, I can tell you what I know from a Babushka in my family who is like 70 years old. She is from Bosnia and grew up in a village that was half Muslim, half Serb Orthodox. To this day, you never see her with out her "marama (scarf) for more than a few seconds when she's readjusting it, even in muggy Florida. She has a little grandson about 5 years old who will automatically start yelling when she reties it, as to make sure she doesn't take it off. Anyway, she told me one day that as soon as girls were considered "girls" and not kids, they started wearing scarves. Out in the fields, tending sheep, church, whatever. For them it did not rely upon marital status. She told me that in her day- any girl without her head covered was considered a "whore" and not even considered for marriage or anything. This was in a multi-religious Yugoslavia, so whose faith this custom was derived from, I don't know.
Just some observations.
In Christ,
Tessa[/quote]
