The origins of crossing finges and hats

While I am not familiar with the origin of not wearing hats indoors, there is commentary about it in the Bible.

St. Paul notes in his 1st letter to the Corintians (although he says later that it is only his opnion and not binding):

“Any man who prays or prophesies with his head uncovered brings shame upon his head. But and woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame upon her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she had her head shaved. For if a woman does not have her head veiled, then she may as well have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should wear a veil. A man, on the other hand, should not cover his head, because he is the image of the glory of God, but woman is the glory of man” (1 Cor. 4-7; see also 13-16).

2 interesting notes on this issue regarding the Catholic Church:\

1. until the Second Vatican council, women were required to wear veils or other head coverings in Church.
2. According to Catholic teaching, God’s highest creation was a woman:the Blessed Virgin Mary (note that the Church teaches that Jesus was not a creation, but was “eternally begotten of the Father” and “begotten not created”)

As far as the custom of wearing hats in the US goes, we took our queue from President Kennedy. He wore a top hat to his inaugaration, and never wore one in public since. Since then it has not been fashionable to wear dress hats in public. However, the hat did make a slight resurgence in the 1980s because of the Indiana Jones craze, but that did not last.