Happy Groundhog Day. Punxsutawney Phil apparently saw his shadow this morning, so batten down the hatches for another 6 weeks of chilly weather. This annual tradition has a couple of connections to the Penn. Dutch. First, there happens to be a sizable Amish settlement in Clearfield County in the vicinity of Punxsutawney, PA (1,000+ people). I don’t know of any groundhog-related customs associated with this…
I had originally planned to try a separate post for each question, but realized that would take awhile and that some can probably be answered in shorter form. So here are some more of your questions from the “Submit your Amish questions” page. We’ll get to more later: Fr. Andre Leveille, CSC: Do the Amish have baptism, communion, confirmation, marriage, ordination and annointing of the…
Stephen B writes: While I certainly understand the idea behind Plain-ness, of not calling undue attention to one’s self out of modesty and of not wanting to be too much of this world, it seems to me that as times and fashions change, the Amish haven’t really updated their fashions enough to actually *stay* plain. That is, it was one thing, back when, to wear…
Michigan Mary asks: What are the standard burial rituals for the Amish? Who/what digs their graves? Takes care of their cemeteries? We’ve hit on this topic on a couple of occasions, so I may just direct you to these previous posts: on the Amish funeral, and Amish cemetery. As to who digs graves, that would be other Amish, by hand using shovels. Members of the…
Giving new meaning to the term? From the Lagrange County IN Amish settlement. More on the Amish phone.
I have a favorite pair of shoes. They’re cold-weather hikers, originally waterproof but after a few years of use, not so much anymore. That’s not the problem, though, as apparently a tiny hole has appeared, somewhere, in the sole (where exactly, I haven’t been able to determine). However it lets enough water in that walking around on a rainy day or on wettish pavement soon…
Here’s a neat story I missed during Christmas, worth taking a look back at. A couple reasons why–one, it’s about an Arkansas Amish community–and you don’t hear too much about Amish in Arkansas, owing to the small size and remoteness of the Natural State Amish population. Two, it ties in with an issue we discussed earlier this week–challenges created by obstacles like busy roads running through Amish…
Mona asks: How do the older people date/marry after a spouse dies? Or even the younger spouses who may lose a spouse to an accident, etc.? Divorce is taboo in the Amish church, but Amish people do fairly often remarry after a spouse dies. If you look through an Amish publication like The Diary for instance, you can find a monthly record of marriages, with several…
I recently heard that a number of Amish in the Lancaster County community have begun using regular electric washers (like any English home might have, except powered by the diesel generator). With the widely-used wringer washers (ie, the old Maytag style), the clothes are still pretty wet when you finish. Using a regular washer, the spin cycle forces a lot of that extra water out,…
This photo was taken in the New Wilmington PA Amish settlement. I’ve mentioned before how I’m no big fan of cell phones. That said, they sure are handy to have on hand when you actually need to talk to someone. The pay phone is one of those things, like the roadside diner and the family radio, that seem destined to become a quaint relic of…