Yesterday we visited the Amish in Lancaster County and found out a bit about how they live and what makes them different to us.  It was a very long drive to them but it was definitely worth it.

It all started when we arrived the Amish Village, a visitor centre about Amish people.  They are a religious group of people who believe they should stay separate from the rest of the world. We parked up and went inside to a museum about the Amish. When we got inside a man told us a bit about the building which had once been an Amish house itself.  It was built in 1840 and he took us on a tour went around rooms of the house to see their bedrooms and clothes and lots more.

Around the house there was a kitchen with a sewing machine in the corner (as the mums sew the clothes for the family members to wear). There were different types of jams and food in jars, such as chow-chow which has lots of different pickled vegetables. There was also a sofa which was there so that if a person in the family (there’s about 7-13 children in a family) got ill he or she could sit or sleep on the sofa in the kitchen.  This was because the kitchen was the only room with heat which came from the wood fuelled oven.  

Today they have an oven but it is run by electricity that comes from a generator.  They don’t believe in relying on the outside world, (all the other people) and they think that being connected to the electric grid allows bad stuff to come into their house that they want to be separate from. They try to be self sufficient and do everything themselves and live separately from the rest of the world. 

There’s only one mirror in the house which is kept in kitchen for the men to shave (but once they’re married they can’t shave their beards for the rest of their lives) and also for the women.  They only use it to style and brush their hair (you put your hair in a bun then you put a hat on that’s white and shaped like a heart) because they do not wear any make up.

Upstairs is their bedrooms, the beds used to be made from strings without a mattress like us. The mum and dad have their bed facing their farm (they still make quilts and sell them for as much as $948!)

If you are Amish, when you are born and can’t walk you wear a dress even if you’re a boy! Once you can walk the boys then wear a black hat or straw hat with trousers that hold up with braces with a dark vest or coat and women wear a dress when they are babies just like the boys until they can walk.  They then wear a plain black dress down to the ankles and a white apron if they’re not married or a purple or black apron if they are married. 

We heard that Amish people are very modest and live a simple life.  They are not allowed to drive a car or own a car, don’t have TVs or even mobile phones!

When you are sixteen you get a year out to see if you want to be a Amish still or if you want to be English (they call everyone who is not Amish “English”!) and leave the Amish life.  We were told that most Amish return to be Amish for life.
Outside they have a paddock which has a horse or horses. They are there because they pull the Amish along in a carriage. Some Amish have more than one carriage. An Amish always has a grey top on its carriage.

If you want to look out for an Amish home you look to see if there’s a paddock for a horse, a very long washing line with Amish clothes on, a barn to store their carriage,  a big garden for growing vegetables and you won’t find any car or tractor on their land.

Afterwards we looked around to see if we could find any other Amish places and we saw loads of different people and houses and carriages. I found it lots of fun and enjoyed learning about it all. We also saw a school with children and a teacher going into a classroom with one room.  We found out that all teachers are young women and that they are unmarried and must finish teaching once they get married.

Summer