Amish Culture

In this video I take a look at some Amish women’s hair customs, including the difference between a bonnet and a kapp, differences in prayer covering styles, and whether Amish women cut their hair. Runtime: 4:36.  

This was a question that kept popping up, so I did a video on it. While it might seem pretty straightforward, it does open up a couple of interesting related topics – Amish adoption, and outsiders joining the Amish. I give examples from those categories in answering this question. Runtime: 2:34. Read more: Are There Black Amish?  

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you – in commemoration of the day I did a video on Amish Thanksgiving customs. Thanksgiving is a non-religious holiday but one that the Amish celebrate. How do they observe the day? Does it differ from non-Amish Thanksgiving? I hope you enjoy the video, and especially the day spent with family and good food.

Elam Stoltzfus shares Part 1 of a four-part series on Amish Parochial schools in Pennsylvania. Elam grew up Amish, and we’ve previously seen his work here in his 4-part “Rediscovering the Ausbund” series on the Amish hymn book. This will be published in full at the Plain Values magazine Substack (linked below). In this part, Elam shares his first day of school as an Amish…

How would you like to manage the shopping, food prep, and cleanup to feed 1,000+ people? Lovina Eicher is facing this task as she prepares for the upcoming wedding of her daugher Loretta, as she writes in her latest column. She will, of course, have some help: Yesterday my three head cooks came, and we went through the recipes to see what all we need….

I don’t know if it was just coincidence, but two stories on the Amish and e-bikes came out last week on the same day – one on Amish in Ohio, and the other on Iowa (that can’t be coincidence, I’m thinking). If you’re not familiar, e-bikes are bicycles fitted with an electric motor which provide additional power when riding to provide an easier ride and…

A non-Amish farmer in Morrow County, Ohio lost his barn in a fire in July. Soon after, a local Amish friend offered help (via Morrow County Sentinel): One of the first to come after the fire was their Amish friend, David Raber. The Robinsons have sold hay to the Amish and transported them many times for their logging and other needs. They have known Amish in…

Here’s my video look at a question that often comes up: Why do some Amish use bicycles, while others only ride scooters? In some communities you’ll mainly, or only, see the classic kick scooter. Lancaster County is the first that comes to mind. But this is also the case in places like Geauga County, Ohio, or Allen County, Indiana. Image: S.I. In others, bicycles prevail…

Here’s one I hadn’t seen before: an Amish farmer in Lancaster County is selling his baseball card collection via online auction. Amish play baseball and softball, and there is certainly interest in the sport in some quarters. Amish have hobbies and pastimes of course, but we tend to hear about ones like hunting. So I’d never heard of adult Amish with baseball card collections. But,…