The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

A repository for intrinsically valuable information

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby Dr. Ambiguous » Thu Jul 11, 2013 9:55 pm

JamishT wrote:Yay for research! My cousin knows someone who knows Merlin, and said he's really that crazy. Also in the last episode, they talked to the guys about the show, and Leb. Levi wasn't happy at some of the footage they shot, so I guess some was real...Who knows?

I've never seen the show, it's just that when I first heard about it a few months ago the concept sounded... odd. So I did a little research (wiki and reading the sources).
  • 5

<@Tesseracts> your stalking skills make you the #1 counter-stalker

Not sure how to use the forum? Read the TCS Forum Guide
User avatar
Dr. Ambiguous
TCS Admin
TCS Admin
 
Posts: 2560
Joined: Thu May 02, 2013 8:38 pm
Show rep
Title: Random Pointless Rule Nazi

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby Qinglong » Fri Jul 12, 2013 11:08 am

What holidays do the Amish celebrate and how? For example, is Christmas a big deal with the huge extended family or a quiet affair with just the single family? What about Thanksgiving or Independence Day? Do the Amish do fireworks? Are there any Amish-only holidays?
  • 5

Man created logic and because of that was superior to it. Logic He gave unto me, but no more. The tool does not describe the designer. More than this I do not choose to say. More than this you have no need to know.
User avatar
Qinglong
Knight Writer
Knight Writer
 
Posts: 1765
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2013 2:27 pm
Location: The Eastern Sky
Show rep
Title: Experienced Bystander

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby JamishT » Fri Jul 12, 2013 12:24 pm

Of course it depends on the church rules and/or family custom, but in my extended family Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter are celebrated. But Christmas doesn't haven decorations or Christmas trees (Christmas trees are Pagan, right? Right. [I now have my own Christmas tree]). Easter is focused on the Resurrection so it's more of a holy day than a holiday. Generally the extended family gets together for either Christmas or Thanksgiving (and sometimes both). On my mom's side there are 13 siblings who popped out 39 kids, so the holidays are a big undertaking.
As for Independence Day, the Amish sometimes take that day off, especially if they work with a bunch of non-Amish. They generally get together for cookouts and stuff (and will watch fireworks, but generally won't buy them), but I wouldn't say they're celebrating America's independence. Back during the Revolutionary War, the Amish kinda ran to Canada until after the war because they don't support rebelling against authority. That's one thing I'm especially not proud of.
As for Amish-only holidays...some celebrate Ascension Day (which is like 40 days after Easter). Some celebrate Old Christmas which is January 6th (that's the day the Julian has Christmas on).
Oh, and they definitely don't celebrate Halloween. Other "Hallmark holidays" (i.e. Mother's Day, Father's Day) are up to the families.
My mom's family didn't celebrate much of anything growing up. My grandpa (no one was really sad when he died) believed that celebrations are basically of the devil, because in Job, his kids were celebrating something and the house fell on them and killed them. Thus, no celebrating much of anything.
  • 9

JamishT was a heck of a guy,
With a devilish twinkle in his eye.
With his hand-picked flowers,
And his feel-good powers,
He made all the girls blush and sigh.
User avatar
JamishT
TCS ModerBlobber
TCS ModerBlobber
 
Posts: 5579
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:31 pm
Location: KC, MO, AMERICA
Show rep
Title: The Wannabe Adult

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby Qinglong » Fri Jul 12, 2013 12:56 pm

Hah! I hadn't even thought about Halloween. Yeah, I guess that one wouldn't go over too well.

And, wow, your grandpa sounded like a real hard-ass. But that brings up another question. Are there Amish that other Amish consider "too Amish"? Like too excessively devotional or something?
  • 5

Man created logic and because of that was superior to it. Logic He gave unto me, but no more. The tool does not describe the designer. More than this I do not choose to say. More than this you have no need to know.
User avatar
Qinglong
Knight Writer
Knight Writer
 
Posts: 1765
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2013 2:27 pm
Location: The Eastern Sky
Show rep
Title: Experienced Bystander

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby sunglasses » Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:23 pm

Not to mildly rant, but I never really understood why people are so against Halloween. If I get one more pamphlet telling me I'm going to hell this year as I pass out candy, I may scream. Trick or treating is thought to have originated from going house to house and collecting soul cakes, cakes which were baked for all christened souls. Collecting said soul cakes was a means to pray for souls in purgatory, as each cake eaten represented a soul being freed. Super fun fact: All Souls Day was originally May 13th but switched to November 1st at the behest of Pope Gregory.
I am aware that some people accuse Halloween of being influenced by Samhain, which most do not really understand what that celebration was about. It was the signal for the dark half of the year, winter. A time to bring in the herds.
Sorry, I'm done now.
  • 11

TCS Etiquette Guide

Rules and FAQs

Zevran wrote:Magic can kill. Knives can kill. Even small children launched at great speeds can kill.
User avatar
sunglasses
TCS Moderator
TCS Moderator
 
Posts: 11541
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Show rep
Title: The Speaker of Horrors.

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby JamishT » Fri Jul 12, 2013 2:48 pm

Qinglong wrote:And, wow, your grandpa sounded like a real hard-ass. But that brings up another question. Are there Amish that other Amish consider "too Amish"? Like too excessively devotional or something?


Yes there are. In Ohio, around Holmes County, there's a sect called the Swartzentruber Amish. They are super strict, i.e. they cannot mow their lawn too often because you could develop pride in how good it looks. Seriously. My bro-in-law came from that sect, and the thing that put him over the edge was when one of the preachers happened to come over while he was working on the farm and noticed his shirt's top hook-and-eye (they don't use buttons, too modern) was broken and he was holding it together with a safety pin. He was called out on it being too shiny and gaudy. There are other Amish sects that don't wear deodorant ("I only care what God thinks, not man!"), and they drive the other Amish nuts.

sunglasses wrote:Not to mildly rant, but I never really understood why people are so against Halloween. If I get one more pamphlet telling me I'm going to hell this year as I pass out candy, I may scream. Trick or treating is thought to have originated from going house to house and collecting soul cakes, cakes which were baked for all christened souls. Collecting said soul cakes was a means to pray for souls in purgatory, as each cake eaten represented a soul being freed. Super fun fact: All Souls Day was originally May 13th but switched to November 1st at the behest of Pope Gregory.
I am aware that some people accuse Halloween of being influenced by Samhain, which most do not really understand what that celebration was about. It was the signal for the dark half of the year, winter. A time to bring in the herds.
Sorry, I'm done now.


I'm not even going to state my opinion because this is off topic. But I understand what you're saying, and it's fine that you ranted a bit. :)
  • 9

JamishT was a heck of a guy,
With a devilish twinkle in his eye.
With his hand-picked flowers,
And his feel-good powers,
He made all the girls blush and sigh.
User avatar
JamishT
TCS ModerBlobber
TCS ModerBlobber
 
Posts: 5579
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:31 pm
Location: KC, MO, AMERICA
Show rep
Title: The Wannabe Adult

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby Learned Nand » Fri Jul 12, 2013 2:57 pm

JamishT wrote:Back during the Revolutionary War, the Amish kinda ran to Canada until after the war because they don't support rebelling against authority. That's one thing I'm especially not proud of.

Many other Americans just plain sided with the British, and really the revolutionary war wasn't that morally unambiguous anyways. Certainly Indigenous and African Americans got the short end of the stick. The Amish just refused to fight against the British, they didn't ally with the Nazis. It's not really anything to be ashamed of, particularly considering that you didn't do it yourself.
  • 8

Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Click for a Limerick
OrangeEyebrows wrote:There once was a guy, Aviel,
whose arguments no one could quell.
He tested with Turing,
his circuits fried during,
and now we'll have peace for a spell.
User avatar
Learned Nand
Back-End Admin
Back-End Admin
 
Posts: 9858
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 9:18 pm
Location: Permanently in the wrong
Show rep
Title: Auditor of Reality

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby Qinglong » Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:24 pm

JamishT wrote:Yes there are. In Ohio, around Holmes County, there's a sect called the Swartzentruber Amish. They are super strict, i.e. they cannot mow their lawn too often because you could develop pride in how good it looks. Seriously. My bro-in-law came from that sect, and the thing that put him over the edge was when one of the preachers happened to come over while he was working on the farm and noticed his shirt's top hook-and-eye (they don't use buttons, too modern) was broken and he was holding it together with a safety pin. He was called out on it being too shiny and gaudy. There are other Amish sects that don't wear deodorant ("I only care what God thinks, not man!"), and they drive the other Amish nuts.

This gets more interesting all the time! What did your brother-in-law do? Did he just leave that sect or leave the Amish altogether?
  • 3

Man created logic and because of that was superior to it. Logic He gave unto me, but no more. The tool does not describe the designer. More than this I do not choose to say. More than this you have no need to know.
User avatar
Qinglong
Knight Writer
Knight Writer
 
Posts: 1765
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2013 2:27 pm
Location: The Eastern Sky
Show rep
Title: Experienced Bystander

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby JamishT » Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:40 pm

He left the Amish altogether shortly after that. He had a couple brothers who had already left, and he was 17-18 at the time, so he basically left a note and was gone.
  • 6

JamishT was a heck of a guy,
With a devilish twinkle in his eye.
With his hand-picked flowers,
And his feel-good powers,
He made all the girls blush and sigh.
User avatar
JamishT
TCS ModerBlobber
TCS ModerBlobber
 
Posts: 5579
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:31 pm
Location: KC, MO, AMERICA
Show rep
Title: The Wannabe Adult

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby Ganymede314 » Mon Jul 15, 2013 7:31 pm

Hey JamishT!

So I was wondering, are there groups and communities of Amish people outside of America? I gather that generally the Amish ancestry comes from Holland, or thereabouts, are there still Amish communities there? And what about in other parts of the world? Any Amish here in Ireland? Interestingly, the Amish ways of devotion to God and hard work are quite similar to the ways of old farmers in Ireland (well in the west certainly, in the not so distant past).

(I hope this question hasn't already been asked. I have read the whole thread because I find the Amish life fascinating, but it's been a while.)
  • 4

"The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us -- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries."
-Carl Sagan
User avatar
Ganymede314
TCS Regular
TCS Regular
 
Posts: 459
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 12:33 pm
Location: Ireland
Show rep
Title: Space Face

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby JamishT » Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:10 am

Ganymede314 wrote:Hey JamishT!

So I was wondering, are there groups and communities of Amish people outside of America? I gather that generally the Amish ancestry comes from Holland, or thereabouts, are there still Amish communities there? And what about in other parts of the world? Any Amish here in Ireland? Interestingly, the Amish ways of devotion to God and hard work are quite similar to the ways of old farmers in Ireland (well in the west certainly, in the not so distant past).

(I hope this question hasn't already been asked. I have read the whole thread because I find the Amish life fascinating, but it's been a while.)


Hey Gany!

There are communities in Canada, Mexico, and other parts of Central America, but those are the only non-U.S. communities I know of. The Amish originated in Southern Germany and Switzerland, but I don't think I've ever heard of Amish still living there.
  • 9

JamishT was a heck of a guy,
With a devilish twinkle in his eye.
With his hand-picked flowers,
And his feel-good powers,
He made all the girls blush and sigh.
User avatar
JamishT
TCS ModerBlobber
TCS ModerBlobber
 
Posts: 5579
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:31 pm
Location: KC, MO, AMERICA
Show rep
Title: The Wannabe Adult

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby AboveGL » Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:15 am

A friend from secondary school was Amish and there's a community of them near/in my town.
  • 8

AboveGL
TCS Sithlord
TCS Sithlord
 
Posts: 1797
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:37 pm
Show rep

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby 52xMax » Tue Jul 16, 2013 6:22 pm

JamishT wrote:There are communities in Canada, Mexico, and other parts of Central America, but those are the only non-U.S. communities I know of.


Where in Mexico? I know there are Mennonite communities in the mountains, and we used to have polygamist Mormons too back in the day (Mitt Romney's family still lives here), but I'd never heard of any Amish.

I'm asking because I've heard that Amish restaurants are the bomb, and if there's any chance I can find one within traveling distance from me I wanna go.
  • 3

"When in doubt... well, don't ask me!"
User avatar
52xMax
Knight Writer
Knight Writer
 
Posts: 3058
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:38 pm
Location: In all the wrong places.
Show rep
Title: Salmon the Wise

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby JamishT » Tue Jul 16, 2013 10:32 pm

52xMax wrote:
JamishT wrote:There are communities in Canada, Mexico, and other parts of Central America, but those are the only non-U.S. communities I know of.


Where in Mexico? I know there are Mennonite communities in the mountains, and we used to have polygamist Mormons too back in the day (Mitt Romney's family still lives here), but I'd never heard of any Amish.

I'm asking because I've heard that Amish restaurants are the bomb, and if there's any chance I can find one within traveling distance from me I wanna go.


I think they're near the border, but I may be completely wrong. I'm going off the fact that they go to Mexico all the time for medical treatment, and I assumed some might stick around and make a community.

But that's a completely reasonable reason to wonder!
  • 7

JamishT was a heck of a guy,
With a devilish twinkle in his eye.
With his hand-picked flowers,
And his feel-good powers,
He made all the girls blush and sigh.
User avatar
JamishT
TCS ModerBlobber
TCS ModerBlobber
 
Posts: 5579
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:31 pm
Location: KC, MO, AMERICA
Show rep
Title: The Wannabe Adult

Re: The Amish: Your Questions Answered!

Postby Ganymede314 » Wed Jul 24, 2013 7:17 pm

Hey Jamish, I have a couple more questions about Amish-y things if you don't mind!

So, I was watching some BBC documentaries recently about the Amish, and they brought up the practice of Rumspringa (hopefully I have spelled it correctly) where young adults leave for a period of time to go and live outside of the Amish community. I know there are different groups of Amish, and some are far more strict than others, so I was wondering, does every Amish group practice Rumspringa? And does this result in many losses from the Amish community, with people deciding not to be baptised into the Amish community after they return from Rumspriga? Also, if one were to leave the community in such a fashion, would that person be cut off entirely from contact with those of their family still part of the Amish?

I recall you saying that your family left the Amish due to attending Bible study groups, and I didn't really understand the significance of this until I saw a few rather interesting documentaries about Amish people who have been through a similar ordeal. I did not realise until I saw that, that the Amish forbid the reading of the Bible in the English language, even though apparently the language the Amish Bible is written in is no longer widely understood and is different to the spoken language they use. I am given to understand that the Amish people who want to study the Bible in English are just looking for a deeper and clearer understanding of their holy book, and they do so even though they risk excommunication from the community. I think it is pretty admirable and brave to do this in the face of such risk, and I hope your parents found what they were looking for. I was wondering, if it is not too personal, if your family still have much contact with the community they left?
  • 7

"The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us -- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries."
-Carl Sagan
User avatar
Ganymede314
TCS Regular
TCS Regular
 
Posts: 459
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 12:33 pm
Location: Ireland
Show rep
Title: Space Face

PreviousNext

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests

cron