We have a guest post today from Emma Miller. Though most people raised Amish end up joining an Amish church, a certain percentage for one reason or another do not. Here’s Emma writing about a new organization she’s started for former Amish: I grew up Amish in a small town in Missouri, the 6th child out of 12. I have many fond memories of summer…
Amish are known to be avid birders. As an outdoors activity you can do with family, I suppose that shouldn’t come as a surprise. This might be the wrong analogy, but I’ve always imagined it as hunting without the guns. I don’t have any statistics but it seems like it is particularly popular among Amish in Ohio. There is even an Amish Bird Symposium next…
Tom continues his New York Amish coverage with some photos of an Amish maple syrup operation in the Randolph, NY area (Conewango Valley Amish community). Says Tom: “I have been in the sugar shack when Eli’s kids and grands are watching and the women are making pancakes and drawing hot syrup out of the pan to pour on the pancakes. The hard work does…
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…