Home altar

A home altar or family altar is a shrine kept in the home of a Western Christian family used for Christian prayer and family worship. Home altars often contain a cross or crucifix, a copy of the Bible (especially a Family Bible), a breviary and/or other prayer book, a daily devotional, a headcovering (worn by many Christian women, especially during prayer and worship), icons of Jesus Christ and prayer beads, among other religious articles specific to the individual's Christian denomination, for example, the images of the saints for Catholics, the Small Catechism for Lutherans, and the Anglican prayer beads for Anglicans. The Christian Treasury traces the origin of the family altar to the prophet Abraham erecting one in the Old Testament (). Since at least the 2nd century, believers such as Hipparchus, hung or painted a Christian cross, to which they prostrated in front of, on the eastern wall of their home in order to indicate the eastward direction of prayer during the seven fixed prayer times, as an "expression of their undying belief in the coming again of Jesus was united to their conviction that the cross, 'the sign of the Son of Man,' would appear in the eastern heavens on his return (see )." Syrian Christians viewed their prayers in front of the Christian cross hanging on the eastern wall of their house as symbolizing "their souls facing God, talking with him, and sharing their spirituality with the Lord." Many Christians, such as those in the tradition of the Church of the East, continue the practice of hanging a Christian cross on the east wall of their house today; communicants in the Oriental Orthodox Churches today, such as those of the Indian Orthodox Church and Coptic Orthodox Church, pray the canonical hours contained in the Shehimo and Agpeya breviaries respectively (a practice done at seven fixed prayer times a day) facing eastward. Many Christians have built on this ancient custom, with those in the West erecting home altars and those in the East erecting icon corners, usually on the eastern wall of their dwelling place.