The Amish Life

Amish Families

In an average family there’s about 7-10  children. For them its normal. The more children there are, the larger the population of the Amish community.                                                      From all the 7-10 children, at least 4-5 children in a family stays to engage in jobs and develop in the community of the Amish, like staying in the church or work in jobs. The rest of the kids decided to leave the community and start their own life.                                                                                     In the family, they’re doing all together. They eat together, play together, do chores together. And this is a result of not using electricals appliance like phones and computers.

Electricity in the house? In the Amish houses? I don’t think so.

In the Amish community’s houses, there’s no electricals appliance. They have couple of reasons why they shouldn’t have electronic and what they use instead.                            1. It gets easier for them to not desecrate their religion.          2. they have a lot of free time they can spend with their families instead of using phones like an average family in the world. For example, they don’t listen to the radio- they read newspaper. they don’t watch TV- they play outside in the fields or with friends.                                                            The Amish people are using 12-volt batteries because it doesn’t connect them to the ”outside world”.

So how do they plow the fields?                                            they use engines that driven by air. With the engine they can use it for bigger machines like washing machine or sewing machine, they can’t use the engine for smaller machines. To operate central machines, they use gas bottles. It used for refrigerator or stoves. They use lights to illuminate the house/stores they use gas lanterns. They put in the counters/ceiling/or just hanging.

Clothes                                                                            the Amish style is unique, it makes them look different from the other people of the world. For the Amish people its like a status symbol that demonstrates loyalty and identity as a group.          What do men wear normally?                                                They usually wear dark suit, coats, wide pants, suspenders, solid color shirts. The socks shoes and hats usually are in black colors. Men don’t have mustache and waiting to grow beard when they get married.                                                        What do women wear usually?                                                They wear long dresses in solid color, long sleeve and long skirts. On top they wear cape and apron. The women aren’t cutting their hair. Their hair is covered by handkerchief. They aren’t allowed to wear jewelry or painted fabric.

Education

The Amish children learn in schools with one block, they learn there until they reach 8^th grade. They learn basic lessons like math, writing and reading. Mostly, young women that isn’t married teach them. This part of education is only to get them ready for the adult world. After the 8^th grade they have learning program under their parents’ control.

Transportation                                                                     The Amish people don’t own cars, they use horse carriages instead. They can have a ride with a non-Amish people. They can have a ride in buses, taxies or else but just for business, shopping or visit family members.                                            The Amish people aren’t allowed to fly to different countries because it is considered modern.

Jobs                                                                                     the Amish people are working especially in farming, carpentry and selling farm produce. Women usually become teachers.

Language                                                                      except the English, the Amish people are talking other languages.                                                                          Its more likely to see people speaking Pennsylvania Dutch. but some people are speaking Pennsylvania German, this language is more spoken by people from the old-order. the language was mostly spoken by immigrant. There are also Amish communities who speak Swiss German.

Where did they came from?                                                  

The Amish story is part of the Anabaptist (Anabaptist is a group of Christians people that believe in late baptism when they know what they are doing, and doing it from their choice.) movement in Europe, with the first Anabaptists in Zurich, Switzerland in the early 1500s. The Anabaptists lived in Germany, France, Holland and other regions of Europe. The harder-line Amish movement came from the Anabaptist movement in 1693.