I’ve been looking forward to this new addition to Amish America for a long time. Various questions seem to recur on Amish topics. I thought it might be nice to put together a resource to try to answer some of those questions. The Amish Online Encyclopedia (AOE) covers a variety of subjects including Amish culture, [...]
Continue reading New to Amish America: The Amish Online Encyclopedia
photo: golancasterpa Christmas is one of many holidays observed by Amish, and with an expected emphasis on family rather than Santa. Amish-raised scholar John Hostetler shares in Amish Society that some Amish children may be “exposed to such customs [ie, Santa and the Christmas tree] if they attend public school, and some Amish parents come [...]
Continue reading Amish Christmas
Pastry samples at a Flavor retail store Donald Kraybill shares some photos and comments from a recent lecture trip to Japan. Professor Kraybill recently spent a week at universities in Tokyo and Gifu and at the Shibunkaku Art Museum in Kyoto, speaking on the Amish. The Amish are quite well-known in Japan, with perhaps more [...]
Continue reading Amish in Japan? Well, almost.
Elam quit shaving today. Amos’ brother was married last autumn during the traditional wedding season in Lancaster. After spending much of the previous few months visiting relatives along with his new bride, today was finally the day to hang his hat under his own roof. Moving into one’s own home around here means that you [...]
Continue reading Moving day
This is a bit of a follow-up to the post on the Amish and credit/mortgages of a couple weeks ago. NPR ran a story on the subject earlier today on Morning Edition, and you can read a summary and listen to it here: A Mortgage Banker in Amish Country. One thing that struck me was [...]
Continue reading First Buggies and the C-word
Any work that discusses bundling in ‘the good old-fashioned way’ has got to be a heady read. And so it goes with Little Known Facts About the Amish and the Mennonites, a tourist booklet first printed in 1938. The seeds of Amish tourism were planted in the early 20th century, with the enterprise really getting [...]
Continue reading Ammon Aurand’s “Little Known Facts about the Amish and the Mennonites”
“It is very definitely a gray area, in fact it is nearly black.” An anonymous Amish friend from Lancaster County has offered candid answers to some questions on Amish life. In this first of two parts, he comments on topics such as the Amish presence in the media, Amish internet usage, friendships with non-Amish people, [...]
Continue reading An Amish America Q-and-A with a Lancaster County Amishman
