Recent Posts

Who Are The Amish And How Do They Live?

Written by Dennis Regling in Uncategorized

Who Are The Amish And Where Do They Live?
At the beginning of the 20th century, the country had an Amish population of 5,000 . Today, there are roughly 250,000 Amish in North America. Most people think of Pennsylvania when they think of the Amish, but there are now Amish communities in 28 states plus Ontario, Canada.
Ohio has the largest Amish population, and Holmes County has the largest Amish population of any county in the country. Pennsylvania comes in second, and the Lancaster area is probably the most famous Amish area.
Indiana is third and about two thirds of the Amish live in these three states.

There are two Amish communities outside of the United States and Canada. 
One is in Colonia Naranjita, Bolivia and the other is in Argentina.

Who Are The Amish?
The Amish are a Christian community, or I should say, communities. The Amish broke off from the Anabaptist group, the Mennonites, in 1693. Their leader was Jakob Ammon, hence the name “Amish.”
There are also Amish-Mennonite groups. Where groups have left the Amish, taken the Mennonite name and maintained many of the Amish distinctives.

There are several different branches of the Amish. The most conservative are the Schwartzentruber Amish although the best known would be the Old Order Amish.
The four main groups of Amish are:
the Old Order
the New Order
the Beachy Amish
the Amish Mennonites

Among these groups, there are many other divisions. The Beachy Amish and Amish Mennonites drive cars and have electricity, while the Old and New Order groups still use horse and buggy.

Among the Old Order Amish groups, you will find:
Old Order Amish
Nebraska Amish
Swartzentruber Amish
Buchanan Amish
Swiss Amish
Andy Weaver Amish
Troyer Amish
Byler Amish
Renno Amish
Holmes Old Order
Elkhart-LaGrange
Lancaster Amish
Tobe Amish
Michigan Churches
Each group will have their own set of rules, or ordnung, and each community in these groups also have varying rules.

Their Religious Beliefs
The Amish faith is a Christian faith. They believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Unlike most churches, the Amish only meet every other Sunday. They meet in members’ homes or barns. After services there is always a community meal. Some of the new Order groups have started having Sunday school on the off weeks, and the Beachy Amish Mennonites do meet every Sunday and on Wednesday evenings. The Beachy also have meeting buildings.
Baptism is for adults only. Baptism not only symbolizes the new birth in Jesus Christ, but also brings the newly Baptized into the church as a member. At this time, the new member not only affirms his/her faith, but also commits to following the community rules.

Amish Church Services

As mentioned, church services are held at the homes of members. Often in the barn, if the house doesn’t have a large enough room.

Before the service, ladies of the church will help the host family clean and prepare for the meeting. Benches and hymnals are transported in a special wagon from home to home.

During the service, the ministers sit up front and the congregation, including children, sit on hard, wooden benches without backs or cushions. Hymns are sung in High German. Although the congregation speaks Pennsylvania Dutch, a German dialect, not everyone understands everything they are singing.

Every minister is allowed to preach, and most churches have three or more minister, including the bishop. If there are visiting ministers from other congregations, they are also allowed to preach. The church service can last four hours or more, without a break.

After the service, there is a meal. Usually sandwiches, soup and desserts. I have visited two New order Amish services, with friends. At both, the meal was peanut butter (whipped with honey) and jelly sandwiches with ham, Swiss cheese and soup. 


The Amish church wagon. These are the benches the Amish use for Sunday church services. 

The Amish Belief In Nonresistance

The Amish are not pacifists, as commonly believed. They are nonresistant. Pacifism is a philosophy of bringing about change in nonviolent ways. Nonresistance is the Christian practice of not only living peacefully with all men, but of not becoming involved in the affairs of the government. 

The Amish, and Mennonites, will not join the military. The Bible plainly teaches that we are to “love our enemies” and we are not to “return evil for evil.” They Amish and Mennonites have served in non-combat areas during times of war.

The Amish also do not vote. Again, to avoid becoming entangled in the affairs of this world, although this is starting to change. More and more Amish are voting, at least on local issues.

Why Do The Amish Women Wear Those Bonnets?

Simply put, it is a Bible command. 1 Corinthians 11:10 says, ” For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.” In 
1 Corinthians 11:5  it says, “But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with [her] head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.”

My question is why don’t all Christian women obey the Bible in this. 

Are All Amish Farmers?

No. More and more the Amish are working in construction, in factories and as business owners. Farm land is getting harder and harder to find and the profits from a small farm cannot sustain a family. Almost all Amish will have gardens and even some livestock, but this is usually for family use.

In tourist areas like Lancaster, PA and Holmes County, Ohio, many Amish are capitalizing on the tourism with shops that cater to the visitors. 

I have some Old Order friends that own a popcorn and fudge business in Berlin, Ohio. It is a modern store and they even have a web page and a Facebook page for their business.

In Peoli, Ohio, there is a Schwartzentruber Amish gentleman that has a business selling aluminum roofing and siding. He became so successful, the Bishop of the church made him split the business. Now he is only allowed to sell certain colors and another church member has a business selling the other colors. The Amish value hard work, but the Bishop felt that if the man made too much money, he might become prideful or get involved in things he’d be better off avoiding.

Why Do They Live In Such An Old Fashion Way?
The Bible calls for Christians to be separate from the world. Although we are “in the world,” we are not to over involve ourselves in the affairs and activities of the world.
The Amish seem to take these commands very seriousl. They abstain from popular fashion, jewelry, sporting and entertainment events, television and other activities they feel may pull a believer into the world.
Many of the groups still use horse and buggy for transportation. The biggest reason for this is that it keeps the Amish close to home, family and friends. It causes the Amish to work in their communities and know their neighbors.

For long trips the Amish will use public transportation or hire a driver.
The Amish also do not have telephones in their homes. You will see little phone booths they have built in their fields or away from the house, in the yard. They believe that time spent on the telephone is not time well spent. They also believe that by limiting the phone, it encourages members to visit with other members, keeping the community close.

Most Amish will have telephones in their place of business, and even those without electricity in the home will have them in their business. We are also seeing more and more Amish with cell phones.

Do They Use Modern Technology At All?
As already mentioned, the Amish will use public transportation and hired drivers. They tend to have telephones, electricity and flush toilets in their places of business, though not in the homes.
More and more, Amish are using cell phones and the internet. Many Amish businesses now have web pages and even Facebook pages. Builders will use power tools on the job, and many generate their own electricity for home and farm use.

Some do all farming with horses, other groups allow tractors. Some groups require the tractors to have steel wheels. This is to keep them from being use for street transportation. I even heard of one community that allowed rubber tires, but the tires had to be filled with rice and not air.

Are All Amish The Same?
No. As mentioned, there are several sub-groups of Amish, and among them, the different communities also have their own rules. Some use horse and buggy, some own cars and trucks. Some have no electricity, some have electricity. Some dress in only black or dark blue others dress in pretty colors or even allow patterns in their clothing.
Rules can be as strange as allowing smoking, if the cigarette has a brown paper, but not white papers. For those that drive vehicles, solid black cars with no chrome and four doors may be the only ones allowed or the group may allow almost any vehicle in any color. Even the color of buggies, or whether or not a cover is allowed on the buggy varies from group to group for the horse and buggy Amish.

Do The Amish Pay Taxes?
Many people think the Amish do not pay taxes, but this is not true. Although some Amish do not pay into, or collect, Social Security, the Amish pay all the other taxes that we all pay. As more Amish are going to work in factories and in non-Amish shops, more and more are also starting to pay and collect Social Security.
Although they pay property taxes and other taxes, the Amish do not take all the benefits from their taxes that non-Amish do. They have their own private schools, yet in communities with a large Amish population, they are a source of significant funds for the public (government) schools.

Conclusion
Anyone who has ever visited Amish Country, or read books about the Amish, or seen a movie about the Amish will tell you everything they know about the Amish. You, the reader, probably thought you knew a lot about the Amish even before reading the article.
But the more I live among the Amish and get to know them, the more I discover that everything I know about the Amish is right, yet everything I know about the Amish is also wrong. They do not fit into neatly defined boxes any more than anyone else.
I mentioned to a Beachy-Amish minister once that I had seen an Old Order Amishman at a theater, watching a play. This is not normally accepted by their group, but my minister friend said, “Some Amish will do anything.”
That has become how I best understand the Amish. They have rules, values and seem quite different from us at times, but before you say, “The Amish don’t FILL IN THE BLANK_,” remember, some Amish will do anything.


Please feel free to comment and post your questions in the comments section.

How Do The Amish Raise Their Children?

Written by Dennis Regling in Amish Life,Uncategorized

The Amish raise their children to be honest, humble and obedient. A strong community of like-minded adults and children provide the foundation for Amish life and culture.

Do Amish boys know that non-Amish boys go to baseball practice and get up on Saturday morning to watch cartoons? Do Amish girls ever dream of driving cars when they grow up? Do they ever want to stop being Amish?

What about you? Do you ever look at your family’s traditions and wish you could live your own life differently to Mark do you think when I grow up I won’t do this and instead I’ll do that? Eventually, when you leave home and become financially independent, you will be able to act on your answers to these questions. Amish teenagers get to make the same choices. Just like teenagers in mainstream Society, however, many factors influence that decision, even if the Amish teenagers do not realize it.

Amish Upbringing

Amish children start school at about the same age as other children in mainstream North American society, usually at five or six years of age. That is not to say that Amish children, or any children for that matter, don’t start learning until then in fact, much of the learning that occurs in our lives take place while we are still very young.

Think about it. By the time a child is ready to start school, she can walk, talk, Run, play games with other children, and even put on their own clothes. Many children can already count, and some can even read by the time they start going to school. The brain of a young child is constantly developing, allowing children to learn things incredibly quickly.

Without even realizing, children everywhere around their own language and culture, from the rules that their parents set for them to the example set by the people around them. Even from a young age, a child mother or father probably doesn’t need to tell him that he should be nice to other people, or that he must wait until after dinner to have ice cream. People learn these things naturally, simply by growing up. It is these very sort of Unwritten rules children love that form the basis for culture. Children learn the rules of their own culture from the age. This is as true of Amish children as it is of children in other communities throughout the world.

Upbringing, or the way we learn the rules of our parents and of our culture, happens naturally in all communities. How it happens, and how it influences people as they grow up, however, varies from one place to another, and from one culture to another. Differences exist between how Amish parents raise their children and how many not Amish parents raise their children

Generally, Amish families tend to be quite large. The motivation for this is quite simple, children provide extra hands to work around the house and on the farm. In fact, before the advent of machines like automatic hay balers and corn h, farm families, in general, tended to be quite large, whether honest or not. Since 1900 alone, the average household size in the United States has fallen from 4.6 people per household to roughly 2.5 people per household.

In addition, Amish communities tend to be quite small, usually between 25 to 40 families. In many Amish communities, families live in close proximity to the aunts, uncle’s, and cousins. Both figuratively and literally, Amish people often think of their name Amish neighbors as family. These two factors, large families and tight-knit communities, provide young Amish people a very closed network of friends and family with whom they interact on a regular basis.

Amish people generally know every person in their Community very well, providing a greater degree of Social Security than what is found in many non-Amish communities. This arrangement creates a much broader concept of family that practiced in most non-Amish communities. Amish parents feel free to trust the welfare and development of their children to any of your neighbors, knowing that all the members of the community were raised in the same traditions in mindset. That’s if a child misbehaves, any at all in the community may discipline him for it.

Amish children experience firm discipline from an early age. Humility and obedience are important character traits in Amish communities, so they are instilled at a very early age.

The Amish take discipline quite seriously. Children are expected to be quiet, obedient, cooperative, and humble through the examples set by their parents and by older children around them, children learn that respect and obedience to their elders are two of the most important virtues they must practice. Failure to obey can result in a spanking or other discipline.

In many ways, the ideal Amish child is very different from mainstream society’s image of the perfect child.  In American society, parents reward toddlers with toys with flashing lights and happy songs promote discovery and exploration. Toys that mimic musical instruments or that allow children to make pictures promote self-expression. Even if such toys could be made without electrical components, many Amish parents would likely never permit the children to play with such things. To Amish parents, allowing the children have such toys would detract from the social contact between parent and child, and could foster characteristics in the children that would run contrary to the ideals of the Amish Community.

Amish Education

Once an Amish child reaches 5 years of age, he goes off each day to school, just like children in mainstream North American society. A few Amish children are sent to rural public schools, but most attend small, one or two room schools. The Amish community usually build these schools themselves, making school as far as expensive than the large Public Schools many non-Amish children now attend. Even though most Amish children do not attend public schools, Amish parents still must pay school taxes in communities.

Children attend school in the eighth grade, mingling throughout the school day with children in all of the other grade levels. Despite the wide range of ages and grade levels in the classroom, only one teacher and perhaps a teacher’s aide or two, move around the classroom, instructing small groups of students for several minutes, giving them, and then moving on to the next. Older students often help younger students with their work. With all this activity, the classroom is General busy place. Amish education stresses cooperation, everyone working together, rather than competition, or each individual tries to do better than the other.

Nevertheless, the teachers keep the school’s well ordered. The students, brought up to respect their elders and authority figures, usually behave for their future. Still, like many larger public schools, playful pranks are common in the classroom when the teacher isn’t looking.

Amish pupils learn arithmetic, English, High German as opposed to the Pennsylvania German they speak at home, history, and a little bit of geography and science. The Amish curriculum stresses cooperation not competition. Teachers reward hard work,  kindness, and an interest in the subject talk. Independent thought and critical analysis, the sort of questioning that many public school teachers try to encourage in their students, are frowned on. Such questioning is not highly regarded among the Amish, who prefer tradition to change. Nevertheless, tests taken by Amish and non-Amish students alike show that the Amish students do just as well as their Public School counterparts in those subjects they have in common.

Each school day is broken by a recess break. If the weather is nice, the students go outside to play, just as students in the public schools do. Amish games, like the Amish school curriculum, usually focus on cooperation and teamwork. Amish children play softball or volleyball during their recess break. In the winter, they may play in the snow, go sledding, or even go skating and a nearby pond

After school, children returned home to do their chores. From an early age, Amish boys and girls are expected to work around the house and the farm. Children learn how to care for the farm animals, horses. They are also expected to clean and do other chores as necessary. This sort of informal education may be more important for the Amish that the subject they learn in school, because these are the chores that repair the Amish young for the life they will likely lead in the future.

Wisconsin vs Yoder

In the 19th century, Amish children sat beside their non-Amish classmates in one room Public Schools without incident. Starting in 1925, however, several Trends in education began to worry the Amish. Many states begin to close the one-room schools in favor of larger Public Schools, often requiring students to be bused to schools miles away. Lengthening school years and Rising ages for compulsory School attendance also where the Amish. They fear the children be exposed to corrupting influences in the mainstream society and would not want to remain Farmers. Finally, in 1972, the U.S.. Supreme Court ruled that the Amish and several other religious groups were exempt from these requirement and could continue to operate little one-room schools. They ruled that attendance at public high schools would threaten Amish freedom of religion, which is protected by the Constitution.

AUTHENTIC AMISH BUTTERMILK PIE – the real deal!

Written by Dennis Regling in Amish,Amish cooking,Amish Recipes,Recipes

Amish Buttermilk Pie

This is a quick and easy pie recipe. It is a custard-like pie.

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 tea bags – Earl Grey
  • 1 frozen regular pie crust  (The Amish ladies, of course, would make a fresh pie crust.)
  • 1/2 tsp lemon zest
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 Tbsp flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted

INSTRUCTIONS:

  • Preheat oven to 425ºF.
  • Warm the buttermilk in a small pan over medium-high heat just until it begins to steam.
  • Do not boil the buttermilk. 
  • Add tea bags and let steep for one hour. Press tea bags to release all the tea and discard.
  • Whisk together infused buttermilk, lemon zest, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, and butter. 
  • Pour into pie crust.
  • Bake for 10 minutes. 
  • Reduce oven heat to 350ºF and continue baking for an additional 30 minutes.

Cool to room temperature and serve. 
Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Take A Trip To Amish Country

Written by Dennis Regling in Amish,Amish Life

Take A Trip To Amish Country

Amish Buggy Ride
Explore the unique culture of the Amish with a trip to Holmes County, Ohio, home of the world’s largest Amish community. Enjoy beautiful scenery, visit an Amish farm, savor homemade foods and listen for the clip-clop of a buggy.
Shop for handmade quilts, artwork and furniture in Millersburg, Berlin or Walnut Creek.
Whether you shop for local Amish-made goods and furniture, stay overnight at a quaint bed and breakfast tucked under an authentic Amish quilt, stop by local roadside stands set up by the Amish to sell excess farm produce, or explore the scenic countryside on a horse & buggy tour, a visit to Amish country can be a rewarding and fascinating experience. 
Looking to go to Pennsylvania, Indiana or other Amish communities? We are working on building trip tips for those areas, too.

Visit Amish CountryAmish Pony Cart

Peaceful and relaxing trips to Amish Country are a special family treat.

Amish Treat: Triple Lemon Cheesecake Swirl Bars

Written by Dennis Regling in Amish,Amish cooking,Amish Recipes,Recipes

Amish Treat: 

Triple Lemon Cheesecake Swirl Bars

 

The tartness of a lemon bar married to the sweetness of cheesecake. Mouth-watering goodness.

Ingredients

1         box (15.25 oz) Betty Crocker™ Cake Mix Lemon
1/2      cup (1 stick) butter, melted
3         eggs
12      ounces (1 1/2 blocks) cream cheese
1/2   cup sugar
1      jar (10 oz) lemon curd, divided 
 
 Directions
  • Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with non-stick foil or spray pan with cooking spray. Stir together the cake mix, melted butter and 1 egg just until combined. This mixture will be thick like cookie dough. Reserve 1/3 cup of the dough to top the bars.
  • Break remaining cake batter mixture into pieces and scatter them across the bottom of the pan. Press dough pieces down and together into an even layer to form the base of the bars.
  • To make the cheesecake filling, start by beating the cream cheese and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs and beat until well combined. Stir in 2 tablespoons of lemon curd to add just a touch of lemon flavor to the cheesecake filling.
  • Spread cheesecake filling over the layer of cake batter in the pan. Dollop spoonfuls of remaining lemon curd over the top.
  • Use a knife to swirl the lemon curd and the cheesecake filling, creating streaks of white and yellow. Break off small pieces of the reserved cake batter mixture and sprinkle them over top of the filling.
  • Bake for 34-38 minutes. The cheesecake will have puffed a little bit but will sink as it cools. The edges will look set but the center of the bars should still jiggle.
  • Remove from oven and set on a cooling rack. Allow cheesecake bars to cool for 30 minutes at room temperature then refrigerate until chilled, about 2 hours more. If you lined the pan with foil, lift the bars out of the pan and cut into squares. Otherwise, cut in the pan.

Yellow buggy

https://www.facebook.com/groups/visittheamish/

 

Learn More About The Amish and Amish Country at: www.visittheamish.com

How Many Amish People Are There? Amish Population Growth.

Written by Dennis Regling in Amish Life,Uncategorized

We might expect a group that rejects higher education and advanced technology to be dying. Surprisingly the Amish are growing. Their population doubles about every 20 years. Counting adults and children, they number more than 325,000 souls.

One Amish woman joked, “If we keep growing so fast soon half the world will be Amish and the other half will be taxi drivers who haul us around.”

So how do the Amish managed to not merely survive but actually thrive in the midst of modern life?

 The Amish live in 31 states and several Canadian provinces. The search for affordable farmland has propelled many new settlements in recent years.

 Large families and strong retention rates Propel Amish growth. On the average, families have about seven children, but it is not unusual to have 10 or more. Typically, about 85% of Amish youth join the church but in some communities retention rises above 95%.

Although the Amish do not evangelize or seek converts, Outsiders may join if they comply with Amish guidelines. Several dozen English, as outsiders are called, have entered the Amish flock in recent decades, but that is a small number.

Amish people reside in more than 500 settlement in 31 States, mostly east of the Mississippi. Some also live in several Canadian provinces. The three most populous states are Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. 

New communities form yearly, while others flounder and die. The two largest Amish settlements are in Holmes County, Ohio and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Each claim more than 200 congregations. In stark contrast, about half the settlements have just one congregation. North America has some 2400 congregations, Each of which typically has 25 to 35 households.

Although we typically think of Amish groups that use horse and buggy Transportation, two other groups with Amish Roots, the Beachy Amish and the Amish-Mennonites, own automobiles, use electricity from the public grid, and engage more with outsiders than the buggy driving Amish.

At first glance, the horse and buggy Amish all look alike. Dig deeper and you will discover more than three dozen subgroups that populate the Amish world.  Each of these tribes has its own unique practices.

Some, for example, have black topped carriages, while other groups have gray, white, yellow, or burnt orange tops. The group’s vary as to their use of technology, views of women, interaction with outsiders, interpretations of the Bible, and guidelines for their youth.

The Amish share a separatist identity and they come in history. The Amish story stretches back nearly five centuries, to the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation in Europe.

Save this post to read later:

Amish Population Growth
Please share this post. Thank you.