Mantilla: the Veil of the Bride of Christ:

Mantilla: the Veil of the Bride of Christ by: Anna Elissa
Non-fiction: Religion, E-book
E-book Count: 21
Book Count: 35


I once again last month waited to the last minute to pick up my free e-book.  And as it was around the time of the Day of the Dead, from October 29th to November 2nd I wore a cheap Day of the Dead headband with red and black roses on it and black lace going down the back of it. (The one from Clair's.) Which when I wore to church the comments I got were; 1. joking about how we should all wear roses in our hair (in a playful way), 2. asking if I was going to go with a full Spanish mantilla (clearly meaning with the combs under it and yards of lace and not just a modern veil made with Spanish lace,) and 3. thanking me for wearing it including wishing more people would bring back the tradition, (this person was Mexican-American, so there is a slight possibility that they were talking about celebrating the Day of the Dead, but the way that they said it every time they saw me makes me thing that they meant it as they saw me wearing a mantilla and not a costume piece.)  Which lead to two revelations: 1.  apparently, my family has reached the point of being known for being out there/individualistic/weird that people are not fazed by anything we wear, and if we have to ask ourselves is this something we could wear to X thing, the answer is most likely yes.  And 2, when I wear a hat or hair fascinator to church women comment on how cute/nice/pretty it is, when I wear a veil men comment on the tradition/history of the veil as an idea. 

So having just learned that full block the view of the person behind me huge hair piece was an option, I found this book.  After reading the reviews of it I found that it was written for Indonesians originally and didn't see any red flags in the reviews, I thought I would try it.  (American pieces on veiling for church tend to often feature people that think that rules of covering ones hair never was removed from church law, even if it literally is not in the current Code of Cannon Law, and that not doing so is a giant, evil, feminist conspiracy,  or that the Bible clearly states that women must protect themselves from horny angels with a hair fetish, or that covering one's hair is some magical mystical experience that God calls women to on par with becoming a nun or getting married.    So basically all the reasons that a modern faithful Catholic women would give as reasons not to veil, for fear of being lumped in with those people.)   So, I was hoping that this would avoid those things and get to the actual history/traditions/reasons that someone might want to wear a veil.  As that info is hard to find in America and the reason I went from not wearing an actual veil to church to doing so, is because I decided that the "Pre-Vatican II was a magic time when the Church was prefect" people didn't get to take any tradition that they liked and ruin it for everyone else.  

This book for the most part did not disappoint.  It pointed out that the "angels" from that Bible passage might be seen as the priest; who in a society where women's hair was seen as very sexy and was usually covered in public, might get distracted by a female not covering it.  It noted that there are many different head coverings besides lace veils.  It noted that it was a private devotion and so it should not be either required or forbidden by a local parish.  It also had stories of women that decided to follow this devotion and well as some priest's thoughts on the devotion.  It pointed out how the devotion was related to Christ and ways that it can lead to a greater holiness, without implying that it makes one holier then people that don't.  There was only one place where it went a little too far, and that was in a bonus essay in the end and not even in the main part of the book, nor was it directly related to wearing a veil.