I really dislike the hand holding and always have. In the local parishes this practice somehow morphed into one in which people held their hands apart, palms up, during the Our Father, mimicking the Priests. Sometimes they’ll do that and hold hands. No idea how all this occurred, but I do recall that it crept in during the 1980s.
Eons ago, when I was a college student, I would attend Mass at a Newman Center where hands were routinely held. For one year I always went to the same Mass as an Arab student, whom I did not know, but who clearly was uncomfortable with it. As I didn’t like it, I always sat in the same row as he, and usually he and I were the only ones sitting in that pew. We never exchanged any words on the topic, but we had an implied pact. One Mass I was running a bit late and didn’t get into church until just before Mass started, and found that a very Hippy girl had taken my place. When the Our Father came she smiled broadly and grabbed both of our hands. The poor Arab student looked over at me with an expression of absolute horror, and it was clear that I’d let him down.
In our local parish, the Priest and Deacon relatively recently gave a short friendly talk in which they noted that holding hands was discouraged, and discouraged us from doing it, and also discouraged the palm up posture. Since then, I’ve returned to the old clasped hands, but I’m one of the few.
