Winter’s Wedding Words: veil
Veil comes via French from the Latin velum, meaning a sail, covering or curtain. In the bridal sense, it originates from an Old French term for the head-covering worn by nuns.
I wonder if there was an association there with (assumed) virginity but I can’t find any evidence to confirm or quash that.
The reason brides started wearing veils was to protect them from the evil spirits lurking around churchyards on the hunt for a virgin (and it is a truth universally acknowledged that all brides are virgins). The veil would supposedly conceal her from such paranormal perverts.
Incidentally, that’s also why her bridesmaids dressed the same – and traditionally, the bride would wear the same as them too; the evil spirits would be too confused about which was the real bride to take a victim.
If evil spirits are really that easily bamboozled, it’s a wonder that they were ever considered a threat at all. And weren’t bridesmaids usually also unmarried? And therefore also (obviously) virgins?
Imagine the spooks having to explain that one to the boss.
Satan: I sent you up there to abduct a virgin bride. Where is she?
Evil spirit: Er, well, I was confused. There were seven of them.
Satan: Seven?
Evil spirit: Yeah, they must have cloned her! They had the same colour dress and the same flimsy white tulle over their faces. How was I supposed to know which one was the bride?
Satan: If they cloned her, they were all virgins! Just take any one of them!
Evil spirit: Well maybe they weren’t clones exactly. Maybe they were just her unmarried sisters and friends. Cousins even.
Satan:
Evil spirit:
Ah well, there goes religion. I’m grateful that the aesthetic need for veils has endured to keep me in work.
