Amish Culture

Amish Youth Sing “I’m On The Winning Side” (Video)

Amish Youth Sing “I’m On The Winning Side” (Video)

Here’s a nice recording by P. Thomas of a group of Amish youth singing the hymn “I Am On The Winning Side” somewhere in Ohio (I assume Holmes County). It’s been quite a while since I’ve shared an Amish singing video. This is a nice one for a return to the topic. This is a New Order group, who tend to be more open to…

Lancaster Amish Bring Their Firefighting Tradition To Virginia

Lancaster Amish Bring Their Firefighting Tradition To Virginia

We’ve got a nice look here at how Amish volunteer firefighters help their communities. The community here is at Farmville, Virginia. This growing community has roots in Lancaster County, which has a long-running tradition of Amish and other Plain people serving on fire companies. So it only makes sense that the Amish who’ve moved here continue that service in their sister (daughter) settlement. In this…

“Utterly NOT an Amish Home!” (5 Myths In One Comment)

“Utterly NOT an Amish Home!” (5 Myths In One Comment)

So I got another comment on the YouTube channel that made my head spin a little bit 😀 The commenter claims that an Amish home I showed in the video “Inside an Amish Home” is “Utterly NOT an Amish home!” The commenter includes a list of five points why he/she thinks it’s not Amish, adding at the end that the video was “total bologna.” This…

Amish With Southern Accents?

Amish With Southern Accents?

I really enjoy all the various accents we have in American English – the regional dialects, quirky localisms, unique manners of speaking (this may be because I also apparently have an odd way of speaking 🙂 ). Amish in different communities have different accents and pronunciations when they speak English as well. When you compare English pronunciation in the Lancaster County Amish community with that…

Opening Christmas Gifts from Amish Friends (Video)

Opening Christmas Gifts from Amish Friends (Video)

I just got back from a very Christmas-y week in Lancaster County. Christmas is in the air everywhere, even though it was warmish with not a ton of frozen precipitation (except for one morning). Amish families have been doing late-in-the-game shopping for Christmas presents, just like non-Amish people are this week, and some have already been having family get-togethers. While there, I attended two early…

Are The Amish “Green”? (Video)

Are The Amish “Green”? (Video)

In September I wrote about one person’s expression of disappointment on discovering the Amish using plastic packaging. You can read that post here if you missed it. In that post I looked at a couple of the misconceptions that might lead one to be disappointed in a cultural group’s choice of food packaging. These were the somewhat related ideas that a) Amish are “frozen in…

Two Reasons Why Amish Limit Education

Two Reasons Why Amish Limit Education

In the video below I explain two main reasons why Amish restrict their children’s schooling to eight grades. If you’d prefer to read this in post form, you can do that here. Some additional things to know about Amish & schooling: Amish school teachers are usually young women in the community (though some men do teach, perhaps around 10%) Not all Amish attend one-room schoolhouses;…

Are these Amish women wearing rings?

Are these Amish women wearing rings?

So a couple of interesting photos from Jim Halverson today, where you can see what looks like Amish women wearing rings. This first is from a recent auction in Clare, Michigan: And here’s another, also from an event at Clare (2020) – the woman in purple: Now, when looking closer, I must admit it occurred to me that the woman with the bags could perhaps…

Amish Buy Lancaster County Restaurant – Will Become Plain Health Clinic

The Good ‘N Plenty restaurant was one of the best-known Lancaster County eateries, serving PA Dutch style meals for over 50 years, until the pandemic-related downturn put them out of business. Now, an Amish group has organized to purchase the property and make it into a health clinic catering to the area’s Plain community. Via Lancaster Online: A group organized by members of the Old…

Ben Explains: How I Choose A Horse (Video)

Ben Explains: How I Choose A Horse (Video)

This is the second part of the Q&A I did with my friend Ben in Lancaster County in June (here’s the first part, on Amish & auctions). In this one, Ben describes how he buys buggy horses for his family – what characteristics he looks for in a horse, where he buys them, and price. He also explains how different family members get different kinds…