The use of horse and buggy is to keep the life simple and close to home. A horse range is about 10 miles and can be gone from home for hours without water. In fact, a horse is very reluctant to drink water from a strange pail unless extremely thristy.Only about 5% of Amish businesses fail compared to about 50% for all others. Others farm and many work in the RV industry. A Amish couple we had dinner with had 30,000 chickens
The typical Amish family has seven children.
Amish speak Pennsylvania Dutch that originated in Southern Germany, and converse in High German in church and their chilren learn English upon starting school.
The Amish go only through the 8th grade.
Amish youth are generally baptized about age 18-21.
Amish don’t have electricity as that would connect them to the outer world. Same with telephones although their Bishops are allowing cell phones if kept out side the house
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Amish young people are outgoing and friendly. A romance between young persons may begin when a young man asks to take a young woman home after a youth group singing. There are no arranged marriages.
Some more rowdy Amish youth experiment with “worldly things” like going to the movies, buying a car, wearing English clothes, smoking and drinking. The is called “rumspringa” which means “running around”. They must give it all up when they join the church and about 90% of them join the "house-church"
Many Amish practices are not based on the Scriptures but are simply a conscious effort to avoid being part of the world’s culture.
The Amish begin to grow a beard, without a mustache, after marriage, however, with some groups the beard comes after baptism.
Each Amish church district meets bi-weekly in their homes and services are rotated between all houses in a district. Each district is comprised of 25-40 families. When it gets larger they divide up. That way every one can fit into a house. Widows do not have to host house meetings as the cost of feeding that many is expensive. Services last all day.
4 comments:
where do you get your info and photos? are you closely related to someone who is amish or who lives simply? just curious. i enjoy learning about their ways of life and often read about them or read fiction tales based on their ways.
Hello Joy: We are volunteering the summer in Shipshewana, Indiana at a Amish and Mennonite Interpretive Center. We are tour guides here. Don took the pictures and wrote the materials from our personal experience and from people we meet and from the many books we have in the bookstore. We are Mennonites from Fresno, California. Thank you for writing.
Don and Marilyn Buller
The Amish are very interesting and friendly people. About 17 years ago, we met a group of Amish with their Mennonite driver, in Fresno at a restaurant. We struck up a conversation with one couple and she offered their name and address and asked us to keep in touch with them. We did, and in 1993 we visited them at their home in Ohio. She cooked us a great meal and I purchased a quilt from her. Unfortunately, they moved and I lost contact with them. We also had a wonderful time with a young family in Lancaster County, PA when we visited there. They graciously invited us into their home and answered questions we had.
I was most impressed by the Amish response to the man who killed several girls at a school in PA. They had nothing but love for the killer's family and forgiveness for him. They are certainly a peaceful people!
the lifestlye is very different
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