As a blushing bride walks down the aisle of a church with tears of joy in her eyes and dressed an expensive white gown, her future husband stands and waits to kiss his wife. This couple has been engaged for several months, and during that time all the details of this day have been perfectly planned: the date of the ceremony, the venue, the flowers, and even the colors of the bridesmaids’ dresses. This is the day that every girl dreams of experiencing. However, if that girl is of the Amish faith, her wedding day will not be as extravagant. An Amish couple who plan to get married will have a much simpler, more community-involved event that will include minimal planning beforehand, a special church service on their day, and a more personal way of thanking their guests. An Amish wedding is a much different experience than a traditional American wedding.
When finding a spouse, the Amish look for someone that will be a good helpmate, serve his or her spouse unconditionally, and most importantly follow the ways of the church and God. When an Amish couple decides to marry, they do not tell anyone until the church allows, which is usually around mid-summer. At that time, there may be several couples that announce their engagement (“Preparing an Amish Wedding”). The community can try to guess who will be getting married soon though, as the families of the couples will be growing more celery than usual because it is a traditional part of the wedding dinner (Clark 115). The couple will not have their wedding until November or December, when the harvest season is over and more people will be able to assist in the preparations for the wedding day activities. The majority of the preparations for the wedding day will be the making of the meal t...
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... Amish weddings are not like a typical American wedding with all its extravagancies, it is still a wonderful occasion where two people commit their lives to each other. This act is the most important, regardless of whether it is lavish and remarkable, or plain and simple. The Amish do not mess around with expensive ceremonies because it is unnecessary to them. All that matters is the togetherness of the community and the unification of a man and a woman in the presence of God. That is what makes the day truly special.
Works Cited
Clark, Mindy Starns. A Pocket Guide to Amish Life. Eugene, Or.: Harvest House, 2010. Print.
Kraybill, Donald B., and Marc Alan Olshan. The Amish Struggle with Modernity. Hanover, NH: University of New England, 1994. Print.
"Preparing an Amish Wedding." The Amish Quilt. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. .
A. Rural Community in the Appalachian South. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1981. Murray, Kenneth. A. Down to Earth People of Appalachia.
Part I of A Sand County Almanac is devoted to the details of a single piece of land: Leopold’s 120-acre farmed-out farmstead in central Wisconsin, abandoned as a farm years before because of the poor soil from which the "sand counties" took their nickname. It was at this weekend retreat, Leopold says, "that we try to rebuild, with shovel and axe, what we are losing elsewhere". Month by month, Leopold leads the reader through the progression of the seasons with descriptions of such things as skunk tracks, mouse economics, the songs, habits, and attitudes of dozens of bird species, cycles of high water in the river, the timely appearance and blooming of several plants, and the joys of cutting one’s own firewood.
Most weddings are done in church. The newly wedded couple is supposed to hold on to their faithfulness in God. Praying and fasting are major activities that are recommended for the couples. Church, best maids and the altar are a symbol of holiness in marriage and that still applies in today’s life. Church weddings are upheld in the society and people take pride being associated with weddings.
The family provides a dense web of social support from cradle to grave. […] Family members help each other during an emergency, a fire or flood, and, of course, at a death”. The Amish community would not have withstood the drastically shifting eras had it not been for their foundation built on solid family and community relationships. Within Amish homes, bonds between siblings, parents and their children, as well as potentially extended families ties including aging grandparents or other relatives, are of utmost importance. Importantly, these interrelationships are not left within the household as the Amish community holds an interconnectedness inclusive to the community that creates an additional support network. This patchwork community of benevolence is not a gift, but a reward. There are expectations and consequences, as the BBC reports “[…] Members are expected to believe the same things and follow the same code of behaviour (called the Ordnung). The purpose of the ordnung is to help the community lead a godly life. […] If a person breaks the rules they may be 'shunned', which means that no-one (including their family) will eat with them or talk to them”. Expectations must be met for an Amish individual to earn and maintain their spot within the community. Despite guidelines wavering depending on each community and their location, the Amish are expected to follow God and seek salvation in a preset and dictated manner. Punishments for breaking the ordnung are strictly enforced and the insubordinate individual is completely excommunicated as a result of their disobedience. Since family connectedness is universally valued amongst Amish communities, if an individual is shunned, they will lose not only their community status but communications will be severed between immediate family members. When applied to education, if prohibited by that particular Ordnung, pursing a higher
Williams, Michael Ann. "Folklife." Ed. Richard A. Straw and H. Tyler Blethen. High Mountains Rising: Appalachia in Time and Place. Chicago: University of Illinois, 2004. 135-146. Print.
On March 23, 1998, I carried out an interview and field observation to confirm a previous hypothesis on Amish social change and survival. I hypothesized, based on library research and personal experience, that Amish society was not static but dynamic and affected by many factors such as economics and cultural survival. In order to check the validity of my hypothesis I arranged to spend a full Sunday (March 23, 1998), with an Amish family. I attended church services at the Westhaven Amish-Mennonite Church in New Holland, Pennsylvania, and afterward spent the day observing and interviewing with an Amish dairy farmer named Aaron and his wife Anna. They have six children and live on a dairy farm in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, which is a large farming community. I met Aaron and his family roughly four years ago while in Lancaster County with my family and since then our families have remained in close contact. Thus, to do an ethnography on the Amish, my primary informant was Aaron, someone I was already comfortable speaking with.
Wise, Stephan. "How the Amish Work." How Stuff Works.com. Amish America, 19 Sept. 2002. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Watching the Amish riding their horse drawn carriages through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, you catch a glimpse of how life would have been 150 years ago. The Amish, without their electricity, cars, and television appear to be a static culture, never changing. This, however, is just an illusion. In fact, the Amish are a dynamic culture which is, through market forces and other means, continually interacting with the enormously tempting culture of America. So, one might be led to wonder how a culture like the Amish, one that seems so anachronistic, has not only survived but has grown and flourished while surrounded by a culture that would seem to be so detrimental to its basic ideals. The Amish, through biological reproduction, resistance to outside culture, compromise, and a strong ethnic symbolism have managed to stave off a culture that waits to engulf them. Why study the Amish? One answer would be, of course, to learn about their seemingly pure cooperative society and value system (called Ordung). From this, one may hope to learn how to better America's problem of individualism and lack of moral or ethical beliefs. However, there is another reason to study the Amish. Because the Amish have remained such a large and distinct culture from our own, they provide an opportunity to study the effects of cultural transmission, resistance, and change, as well as the results of strong symbolism in maintaining ethnic and cultural isolation.
...n, A. M. ( 1995, Spring) The Amish Struggle with Modernity. Virginia Quarterly Review. Vol. 71, Issue 2
From the beginning of this religion, to the present day family roles, the Amish religion has been dissected thoroughly to prove that they are not as boring as perceived by American society. To date, the largest group of Amish people live in Lancaster County, home to about 30, 000 Amish people. Prior to researching this religion, I had many bias thoughts and assumptions about the Amish people. Through weeks of research, I have enlightened myself to a new religion that I did not have much appreciation for, but most importantly, group of people whom I share many of my values and beliefs with.
In the article Social Change Among the Amish out of a group of selected Amish families 130 questionnaires and/or personal interviews were obtained for the information in this article. The Gemeinschaft community is clearly understood in this article about the Amish. The Amish are a Gemeinschaft community living in a Gesellschaft society. The Amish people are polite and cordial but they are not to intrigued by outsiders intruding on their land.
The. Markham: Fitzherry & Whiteside Ltd, 1999. ;College Board. ; The "New Pioneers" - "The New Pioneers" Prairie Public Library -. PBS Online -. 8 September 2003 – http://www.prairiepublic.org>.
I chose to research the Amish culture because it is very separate from the rest of the modern world. There are a lot of “reality” shows now that display the Amish but I cannot be sure that what is said on T.V. is actually accurate. “The Amish people in America are an old religious sect, direct descendants of the Anabaptists of sixteenth-century Europe.” (Powell 2014) The Amish are similar to, but should not be confused with the Mennonite culture. The founder of this culture was Jakob Ammann and he began this way of life in 1639. The Amish live a simple and plain lifestyle that remains “old-fashioned”. According to Wikipedia the population of the Amish community today is around 281,675 people (2014).
The ancient wedding ceremonies would usually start after it got dark. The bride would go to the groom’s house while standing in a chariot. The groom would then get into the chariot, while friends and family would follow it on foot carrying gifts, torches, and playing music to scare away evil spirits. The Greeks have many ways to ward off evil; wear garlic around their neck, play music, make the sign of the cross behind the ear with soot or dirt, etc. They also “knock on wood” to guard against evil and misfortune. Many people in today’s society do this. During the wedding ceremony the rings are placed on the bride and groom’s right hand, then the rings are exchanged three times by the Koumbar. The rings are exchanged three times to show the significance of the holy trinity. Then the bride would eat a piece of fruit to signify that she will provide food and other basic needs to her husband. Next, the couple would engage in a short fight, to show the groom’s strength. After the fight, the groom would toss his bride over his shoulder and carry her out of the church. Having a wedding reception was rare but when a bride and groom did have one, it was best known for the abundance of food, the dancing, and
People in all countries of the world celebrate their important events like birthdays, graduations, weddings, and funerals, etc. However, the ways we have celebrations are different from cultures to cultures and countries to countries. Thus, Vietnamese and Americans have different celebrations for their events, and people in those countries celebrate their weddings differently in preparations, costumes, and ceremonies.