Another feel-good story for your Friday – at least “part one” of the story. An Amish man named Nelson Troyer is spearheading an effort to move the garage of a non-Amish neighbor. Mike Kinsey lost his home in flooding on the Yellowstone River in 2022. The move is happening tomorrow and Troyer is looking to have 150+ people to get the job done. Amish moving…
A viewer writes/asks: “My understanding is that the church bishop makes decisions on what is and isn’t allowed for their community.” I’ve found this is a common belief: the bishops are “in charge”, and in some cases wield heavy hands on their flocks. It fits with certain perceptions of the Amish as an insular, conservative religious community to have a dominant figure at the center,…
Amish vs. non-Amish in a competitive basketball game? In Geauga County, Ohio, home to the world’s fourth-largest Amish settlement, it happens every year in a charity event, pitting Amish against non-Amish teams. The purpose is to raise money for the local DDC Clinic, which helps children with rare genetic disorders. This is something I’d heard about, but hadn’t ever had a chance to share here…
In this video (at bottom), Ben Riehl shares some of his story with us. We talk about his job, past work, and family. Then he answers some more questions, including on telephones, pizza, and the difference between Amish in northern and southern Lancaster County. There are also a couple of brief cameo appearances, by Ben’s wife Mary and son Jay Lester. We end with Ben’s…
Here’s another video in my series with Ben (previous video – “Do Amish Believe They’re The Only True Christians?” here). In this one, he answers a question about Amish marriages. A viewer asked the following: You made a comment about Autumn being the wedding season for the Amish people. I’m not trying to be sarcastic or funny, but is it so they will have their…
Did you know that Amish celebrate three separate Christmases? By this I mean three separate days called by some variation of the name “Christmas”. Two of them occur in December, and one in January. Christmas (December 25) First of course, there is the Christmas we all know, on December 25th. This is the official Christmas, the traditional commemoration of Jesus’ birth, and is celebrated in…
“I don’t recall ever feeling they were rude. But I definitely thought they didn’t like small talk. I assumed it was because I was English – or if I was speaking to a man, it was that I was a woman.” That’s a comment from one observer on the question “Are the Amish rude?” Some of you might recall this topic from back in March…
Sometimes people stand out by making noise. Other times, the quieter ones set themselves apart. One thing that I’ve always appreciated about the Amish, is that they’re not attention seekers. Perhaps this is in part due to the fact they automatically get a lot of attention due to being so visually, and culturally different. But there are also aspects of Amish culture that leads them…
How about another Amish singing video? This is another beautiful one from P. Thomas, from several months back, recorded with a number of other hymns. The venue is a New Order Amish youth group singing (likely in Ohio). New Order Amish tend to be more open when it comes to cameras, so we’ve seen a good number of recordings from them. Like others we’ve heard,…
I want to share with you an excellent documentary on the Amish communal practice of barn raising. In this film by Burton Buller, a barn has recently burned down in an Amish community (which looks to be Holmes County, Ohio). He films the entire process of the barn-raising, starting at the wee hours (4:45 AM) when the first helpers are just arriving. Interspersed with the…