Amish Youth: Out & About On A Saturday Evening

Jim Halverson sends along a few fun photos from this past Saturday evening in northern Indiana. Basically, some shots of open buggies filled with Amish youth. They all seem to be having a blast, and happily waving to the camera.

Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon/evening are the times you’ll see a lot of youth out and about in many Amish communities. 

And, if some who read this might be wondering – no, they don’t care about the camera. These are youth, many if not most unbaptized, in one of the most progressive Amish communities of them all.

And they can see they’re being photographed…that’s why they’re hamming it up 🙂

You can also notice that a good number of the youth aren’t wearing traditional Amish style clothing, nor do all of them always have Amish-style haircuts. That’s not uncommon.

“Running around” or Rumspringa customs vary, sometimes widely, between communities. Each young Amish person makes his or her own decision on which group to join – of which there are many in the bigger settlements. The groups can vary – some plainer, some “faster” – including when it comes to the degree of parental involvement.

For example, in communities like Holmes County and Lancaster County, the less-wild groups, for lack of a better term are known as “singing” groups or parent-supervised groups.

But generally the idea is that during Rumspringa, Amish youth have a more formalized social time together with others their age.

What form that takes can vary. That might involve playing sports and games together (volleyball, softball, or newer, less traditional ones like “can jam” or spikeball), singing around the community, going on volunteer relief trips, and traditionally meeting for a Sunday evening supper and group singing at a church member’s home.

There is also the matter of dating, which is a topic of its own. In any case, looks like what we have here is a nice time with good friends after a long week of work. You can also see a short video clip of one of the buggies passing here:

The Wilder Side

As mentioned, some communities are known for wilder youth behavior. And this happens to be one of them – though I’m not suggesting these young people are in that group. 

This is a large community though, and it has been getting some attention for the behavior of some Amish youth (stress “some”).

We had a look at that in this post – “Sheriff: Growing Concern Over “Large Amish Youth Underage Drinking Parties” (Northern Indiana)” – back in June.

The post describes how the Elkhart County Sheriff took out an ad in an Amish publication asking the community for assistance due to the “re-emerging presence of large, Amish youth underage drinking parties.” No word on what have or have not been the effects of that in the ensuing months. 

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