Amish Day

This post is about what we did on June 19th (it is a little late!). We went into Bird-in-Hand, PA to learn what we could about the area's 25,000+ Amish people and their very interesting culture.

We started out on a bus tour that took us over a number of back roads through the heart of the Amish farmland. First, we learned of some of the history of the Amish religion which had it's roots in 16th century Germany. We learned how they came to be separate from the numerous forms of the Mennonite faith. They came to America, specifically the Philadelphia area, at the invitation of William Penn, Pennsylvania's founder. Penn called his enormous land grant Penn's Wood and set it up as a place where religious freedom exists. As Philadelphia grew, the Amish moved west to the farmlands around Lancaster.

It us well known that the Amish folk live a plain and simple life without many modern conveniences. We saw a number of their one room schoolhouses that all looked like this one. All Amish children attend school through the 8th grade. They learn the usual reading, writing and math but no science. The schools have no frills, no indoor plumbing, no lunch rooms and no electricity. The schools are small and there are large numbers of them scattered throughout the countryside. Children must walk to school--rain or shine.

We past through lots of lush green fields of corn, hay, and tobacco (they smoke pipes and cigars but no cigarettes). Each farm had a large vegetable garden and some of them sold extra produce. We were able to watch several farmers baling their hay with horse-drawn wagons. It sure looked like a lot of hot, hard work. Many of the farms have set up cottage industries, such as furniture-making, canning of jams and jellies, quilt making and baking. We stopped at one farm that had a bakery that specialized in stick buns. We can give first hand testimony that they were delicious! Ovens and other appliances are all run on propane. Many farms have solar panels and battery systems to provide for their power needs. Every farm had a long clothesline full of freshly laundered clothes flying in the yard. Laundry is done on a wringer washer powered by a gasoline engine. All of the clothes are simple in dark solid colors sewn on an old treadle sewing machine by Mom. Mom's chores keep her really busy as the average Amish family in this area has 7 or more children.
We learned that some of the myths about the Amish are untrue. They do use mirrors and their children's dolls do have faces. They do have telephones--not in their homes though--only in a small phone booth that stands separate from the home. We learned that they worship every other Sunday, holding in church in each others homes. Weddings are always on Tuesdays and Thursday in the Fall.
We drove by one of their graveyards. All of the headstones are small and have rounded corners. Three of the local men were there preparing a grave for funeral to be held in the next day or two. It was over 90 degrees making this hand digging especially difficult.

Much of the Amish customs have to do with their strong sense of community. They are always encouraged to think of family and community first. Of course, they do most of their travel by horse and buggy. The idea is that the horse and buggy keeps them close to home, since the mode of transportation is so slow. Amish may hire a driver to take them in a car, use the bus or the train if circumstances require.
The roads are shared with the horse and buggies. We had a rainy afternoon as we drove around and spotted this buggy being patiently followed by the large semi-truck. Although the horses move along pretty quickly , lines of traffic are the norm along most of these roads. It was neat to see the gorgeous horses trotting so proudly along.

We had a great day learning about the Amish and their very different culture and way of life. An interesting note about the endurance of the religion-- over 95% of all Amish children make the choice as young adults to be baptized into the religion of their upbringing.