History of the praying hands

One of the classic images from my childhood and in the world of art is the praying hands. I never really thought about why we fold our hands when we pray (especially in public or in the presence of children). It is just something passed down as tradition I guess. I figured bowing our heads was to show reverence like you would in front of any king, and I suppose closing our eyes is just to help the one praying to stay focused on the one they are praying to. The praying hands actually has a lot of symbolism that I found most interesting on Steven Heller's blog for Print Magazine.

Here is the quote that I found interesting:
"One symbol that we all know, yet doubtless rarely think about because it is so invisibly common, is the ubiquitous gesture of prayer. Where did the joining of hands come from? It might surprise you to learn that it does not have a religious origin. It is not signified in the Bible. And it was not even part of the Christian tradition until the 9th century. In Hebrew and Christian custom, spreading of arms and hands toward the heavens was the prevailing sign of devotion. In The People’s Almanac, David Wallechinsky and Irving Wallace wrote that the joining of hands “leads back to men’s early desire to subjugate each other and developed out of the shackling of hands of prisoners! Though the handcuffs eventually disappeared, the joining of hands remained as a symbol of man’s servitude and submission and his inability (or even lack of inclination) to grasp a weapon.” They added that Christianity adopted “the gesture representing shackled hands as a sign of man’s total obedience to divine power."