I think you’ll enjoy this guest post today from Kate Hastings, about a special publication with a long and interesting history: I was excited when Erik asked me to be a guest blogger, although I feel unworthy of the honor. I teach journalism, film, and writing at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, and I am not a scholar of Amish history and culture. I simply have…
One of my favorite stops of this recent Holmes County trip was Raber’s Bookstore, located “2 miles south of Charm”, as it says on the business card. This photo is not of the store itself, but of an old schoolhouse nearby. The bookstore has changed hands to the next generation and is run by a lively pair, we’ll call them “Atlee” and “Emma”. The store…
A while back I wrote a post on Raber’s Almanac, an annual guide used by the Amish. The Almanac includes an extensive listing of Amish church districts and their ministers. It also includes a Scripture and hymn schedule for church service as well as some folk wisdom and even a dab of astrology, which I examined in the original post. The other day I came…
I may have missed this before, but this is the first year I’ve seen the Calender printed in an English version as well as in the usual high German. The bulk of the 88-page pamphlet, produced by an Ohio Amish printer, is a more-or-less comprehensive listing of Old Order Amish church districts along with their respective ministers. The Calender/Almanac also contains a curious mixture of…