Form, material, colour – everything in a headgear indicated where one belonged: the ethnic, regional and social group. There were shawls and mobcaps for women, some of them ordinary cotton ones, others made of velvet, elaborately decorated and embroidered with a golden thread. They were meant not only to protect from the sun or the cold. First of all, it was not appropriate for a woman to walk around with her head uncovered, nor was she even permitted to do so. Failure to conform to the custom was to result (immediately, thanks to the forces of hell) in having one's head cut off or in having to atone for it after death. A mobcap was placed on the head of a bride at the most important moment of a wedding. First, a garland, the symbol of maidenhood, had to be ritually removed from her head. It often had the shape of an impressive crown, making the most important figure of the ceremony stand out in the crowd of wedding guests.
Headgear, Ethnographic Museum, Krakow
Beacon