The Amish, a branch of Anabaptist Christianity, maintain a lifestyle that is culturally distinct from typical North American culture. They believe their culture reflects biblical values or that a traditional agrarian lifestyle is superior to current cultural trends. For example, the Amish believe large families are a blessing from God, so families with a dozen or more children are not uncommon. Family life is considered more important than economic success, so the elderly and handicapped are not sent to care facilities but are provided for at home. Known for their avoidance of modern technology, the decisions about what is to be used and what is to be avoided are made by the group, not the individual. These decisions are based either upon biblical practices or traditions that have been passed down, with the well-being of the community considered more valuable than the desires of the individual.
Practices vary widely among Amish subgroups, from the Beachy Amish, who use electricity, automobiles, smartphones, and colorful clothing, to the most traditional Swartzentruber Amish, who avoid owning or using any of these.
Family and personal life
Socializing with neighbors and relatives is also an important family function in the Amish culture.
The family and church take precedence over the individual throughout life. A church district is measured by the number of families (households) rather than the number of baptized persons. Families take turns hosting the biweekly preaching service. Parents are accountable to the Lord for the spiritual welfare of their children.
Chores within the home are typically divided by gender. Formal education ends after eighth grade, after which the children are trained for their adult tasks. Boys work with their fathers on the farm or family business, or perhaps begin working for neighbors. Girls work inside the home and garden alongside their mothers, with some helping other young mothers or even working in a local workshop, or taking on schoolteaching. Pursuing higher education is extremely rare.
Youth and courtship Rumspringa (Pennsylvania German lit. "jumping or running around") is the period of adolescence that begins at about 16 years of age and often ending with a serious courtship and marriage. In some communities, a certain amount of misbehavior is expected, but this misbehavior is neither encouraged nor overlooked. Popular non-Amish perceptions of Rumspringa do not reflect the typical practices. At the end of this period, Amish young adults are baptized into the church and usually marry, with marriage permitted only among church members. A small percentage of young people choose not to join the church, deciding to live the rest of their lives in broader society and marry someone outside the community.
Courting begins at sixteen (in some communities, the girl may be as young as fourteen). The most common event for boy-girl association is the bi-weekly Sunday evening "sing." Other social interaction among youth happens at sewing bees, frolics, and weddings. The "sing" is often in the same house or barn as the Sunday morning service. Teens may arrive from several nearby districts, thus providing socialization on a broader scale than from a single church.
At the "sing", boys are on one side of a long table and girls on the other. Songs are chosen by individuals, with conversation interspersed between songs. The formal end of the "sing" is at about ten o'clock, after which there is talking, joking, and visiting. The boys who do not have a girlfriend may pair up with a Maidel (girl). Following this, the boy takes the girl home in his open-topped courting buggy.
Cousin marriage between first-cousins is prohibited among the Amish, but second-cousin relationships are permitted. Marriage to a "Schwartz" cousin, the first cousin, once removed, is not permitted in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the oldest and largest Amish settlement.
Weddings Weddings may be held at any time of the year, but different Amish groups have a "wedding season" (during the time when farm work is slower) when most weddings take place. The bride may pick whatever color wedding dress she desires. She wears no makeup and will not receive an engagement or wedding ring because the Ordnung prohibits personal jewelry. The wedding ceremony may take several hours, followed by a community reception with a banquet and singing. Newlyweds spend the wedding night at the home of the bride's parents.
Celery used to be one of the symbolic foods served at Amish weddings. Celery would also be used instead of flowers to decorate the house.
Retirement Amish tend not to have a set retirement age, generally working until they are unable to do so. Older people are not sent to a retirement facility, but remain at home. There is often an adjacent dwelling comparable to a mother-in-law property called the Grossdaadi Haus or Daudy Haus in which grandparents reside. Older people maintain social contacts through community events, such as frolics, auctions, weddings, and holidays. If older adults become ill or infirm, the family will take turns caring for them.
Lifestyle and culture Amish lifestyle is dictated by the Ordnung (German, meaning: order), which differs slightly from community to community, and, within a community, from district to district. What is acceptable in one community may not be acceptable in another. Groups may separate over matters such as the width of a hat brim, the color of buggies, or various other issues. The use of tobacco and alcohol is accepted within some groups, but other groups have taken a stand against them.
Language Most Old Order Amish speak a distinctive German dialect called Pennsylvania German or, much more commonly, Pennsylvania Dutch. Pennsylvania German is related to the Palatinate German of the 18th century, but has been strongly influenced by American English. The English term "Dutch" originally referred to all forms of German and Netherlandic languages. Pennsylvania German, which is a High German dialect, is distinct from Mennonite Low German and Hutterite German dialects spoken by other Anabaptist groups.
Now spoken primarily by the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites, Pennsylvania German was originally spoken by many German-American immigrants in Pennsylvania and surrounding areas, especially those who came prior to 1800. There are also several sizable Old Order Amish communities where a variety of Swiss German is spoken, rather than Pennsylvania German. The Beachy Amish, especially those who were born after 1960, tend to speak in English at home. All other Amish groups use either Pennsylvania German or a variety of Swiss German as their in-group language of discourse. Small dialectal variations exist between communities, such as Lancaster County and Indiana speech varieties. The Amish are aware of regional variation, and occasionally experience difficulty in understanding speakers from outside their own area.
Clothing
The common theme among all Amish clothing is plainness; clothing should not call attention to the wearer by cut, color, or any other feature. Hook-and-eye closures or straight pins are used as fasteners on dress clothing rather than buttons, zippers, or velcro. Snaps are used on everyday clothes, and plain buttons for work shirts and trousers. The historic restriction on buttons is attributed to tradition and their potential for ostentation. Some groups tend to limit color to black (trousers, dresses) and white (shirts), while others allow muted colors. Dark blue denim work clothing is common within some groups as well. Amish often sew their own clothing.
Women wear cape dresses, calf-length plain-cut dresses in a solid color. Aprons are often worn at home, usually, in white (typically for the unmarried) or purple or black (for the married), and are always worn when attending church. A cape, which consists of a triangular piece of cloth, is usually worn, beginning around the teenage years, and pinned into the apron. In the colder months, a long woolen cloak may be worn. Heavy bonnets are worn over the prayer coverings (known as the kapp) when Amish women are out and about in cold weather, with the exception of the Nebraska Amish, who do not wear bonnets. Girls in some areas may wear colored bonnets until age nine; older girls and women wear black bonnets. Girls begin wearing a cape for church and dress-up occasions at about age eight. Single women wear a white cape to church until about the age of thirty. Everyday capes are colored, matching the dress, until about age forty when only black is used.
Men typically wear dark-colored trousers, some with a dark vest or coat, suspenders (in some communities), broad-brimmed straw hats in the warmer months, and black felt hats in the colder months. Some teenagers, may deviate from these customs to convey individuality. Married men and those over forty grow a beard, although Swartzentruber Amish young men usually never shave, except for the mustache, which is not permitted in most Amish churches because of tradition. In some Old Order Amish settings, a beard may serve the same symbolic function as a wedding ring, marking the status as a married man.
Furniture
Amish furniture is furniture marketed as being made by the Amish, primarily of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. It is generally known as being made of 100% wood, usually without particle board or laminate. Amish furniture making is often a skill passed through many generations. Because Amish beliefs prevent the use of electricity, many woodworking tools in Amish shops are powered by hydraulic and pneumatic power that is run on diesel generators. No piece of furniture is ever identical to another because of the care taken to select the wood. The grain is different on every piece of wood, and the craftsmen often try to highlight the features of each individual piece.
Education
The Amish do not educate their children past the eighth grade, believing that the basic knowledge offered up to that point is sufficient to prepare one for the Amish lifestyle. Almost no Amish go to high school, much less to college. In many communities, the Amish operate their own schools, which are typically one-room schoolhouses with teachers (young unmarried or married men and women) from the Amish community. In Indiana, Amish Children go to public schools from kindergarten to eighth grade. These schools provide education in many crafts and therefore qualify as vocational education, fulfilling the nationwide requirement of education through the tenth grade or its equivalent.
There are Amish children who go to non-Amish public schools, even schools that are far away and that include a very small Amish population. For instance, there have been some Amish children who have attended Leesburg Elementary School in Leesburg, Indiana (about from Nappanee, Indiana), because their families lived on the edge of the school district. In the past, there have been major conflicts between the Amish and outsiders over these matters of local schooling; for the most part, they have been resolved, and the educational authorities allow the Amish to educate their children in their own ways.
Sometimes, there are conflicts between the state-mandated minimum age for discontinuing schooling, and the younger age of children who have completed the eighth grade. The Amish claim that educating their children beyond eighth grade is a violation of their religious beliefs, and so, have been granted exemptions of this mandate. In the past, in comparisons of standardized test scores of Amish students, the Amish have performed above the national average for rural public school pupils in spelling, word usage, and arithmetic. They performed below the national average in vocabulary.