Amish

The Amish the “Plain People”

My article is on the Amish Community and their vague and simplified way of life. Most of my essay will emphasize the culture and tradition of the Amish.

According to the Pennsylvania, Dutch Country Welcome Center, “ The Amish are a religious group who live in the settlements in 22 states and in Ontario Canada. The oldest groups of old order Amish, about 16- to 18,000 live in Landcaster County PA. These people stress humility, family and separation from the rest of the world.

The Amish are best known for their cultural simplicity such as riding horses and buggies as opposed to forbidden automobiles. They also shun electricity, by using fire lit lanterns, radio and any other modern electronics that will jeopardize delicate lifestyle. In this effort, their lives are quiet, slower, and religious to the unseen and unspoken media and scenery to foreign culture. However, instead the Amish get their messages across by telegram, daily journals, by foot or bicycle as opposed to telephones. They have worship in their homes as well as church. Amish are trilingual, Pennsylvania Dutch, they pray in German and are taught Standard English in school. However, regarding the issue of school, The Amish do not believe in school past the eight grade. For, the parents of these children are fearful that a full education will give these youths a more modern insight and that will have some temptation to explore the unseen other world.

The women and girls of this culture and religion will never have cut their hair, but wear it back in a bun. They wear plain fabric dresses reaching floor length, and wear a prayer in their hair indicating- white if married, black if single and no jewelry. As for the males and boys, dark colored suits, brim straw hats, long coats. They do not have mustaches and will grow beards after marriage.

For the Amish, religion, family, and community are empirical. The Amish start seeking out marital spouses by the age of 16 and most women are married by the age 20 or so. However, before a marriage can take its proper place, the couple must be joined in at a church, and must be baptized into the Amish faith at about age 17, having followed the written laws known as “ordnung.” When the couple has established marital plans, they must keep it a secret from their parents till the months of July or August.