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 The
Amish of Lancaster County PA are families, farmers and craftsmen who
grace our small towns and farmlands by following a deeply religious,
family-centered lifestyle through a simple way of life that
foregos "outside world" luxuries. Yet the Amish have adapted in
many necessary ways throughout the last 300 years, while remaining
separated from the world.
On the surface, the Amish lifestyle might appear to be staid and
inflexible. However, it reflects a way of life that is based on a
literal interpretation of the Bible, as well as unwritten rules from
the Amish Ordnung that prescribes behavior, appearance and other
aspects of the Amish culture.
The
oldest group of Amish are called "Old Order" and abide abundantly in
Lancaster County. Old older Amish all drive horses and buggies rather than cars, do
not have electricity in their homes, and send their children to
private, one-room schoolhouses. Children attend only through the
eighth grade and are usually taught by a young, unmarried Christian
woman. After that, they work on their family's farm or business until
they marry. The one-room schools restrict worldly
influences and stress the basics such as reading, writing and
arithmetic.
At home and in their community, the Amish speak a dialect of
German. This language, originally known as Pennsylvania Deutsch, has
gradually became known as Pennsylvania Dutch. Amish children learn
English at school and also study High German for worship services.
 Old
Order Amish women and girls wear modest dresses made from
solid-colored fabric with long sleeves and a full skirt. These dresses are covered with
a cape and apron and are fastened with straight pins or snaps. They
never cut their hair, which they wear in a bun on the back of the
head. On their heads they wear a white prayer covering if they are
married and a black one if they are single. Amish women do not wear
jewelry.
Men and boys wear dark-colored suits, straight-cut coats
without lapels, broadfall trousers, suspenders, solid-colored shirts,
black socks and shoes, and black or straw broad-brimmed hats. Their
shirts fasten with conventional buttons, but their suit coats and
vests fasten with hooks and eyes. They do not have mustaches, but they
grow beards after they marry. The Amish feel these distinctive clothes
encourage humility and separation from the world. Their clothing is
not a costume; it is an expression of their faith.
Amish do not attend "church" in the traditional sense. They
take turns holding three-hour services in each others' homes every
other Sunday. Worship services are solemn; hymns are sung slowly, in
German, without musical accompaniment or harmony. Scripture reading
and sermons in High German follow.
The Amish are a private people who believe that God has called them to
a simple life of faith, discipline, dedication and humility. Their
conviction that God has a personal and abiding interest in their
lives, families and communities is the force that holds them together
in spite of the pressures of the outside world.
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