What makes the Amish so special? (customs and lifestyle)

The Amish live in a very specific way.

You are an Amish since your birth until your 16th birthday, at the age of sixteen, you enter a period of your life called ‘running around’ (‘Rumspringa’ in Pennsylvanian Dutch) which means that you can live a “normal life”, like any American teenager.  You can drive a car, dress like you want, spend time downtown in the city and you can also go on dates. This period is meant to help you choose whether you want to stay in the community, or you want to join the ‘English’ (=non-Amish) world which means to leave your family and your community. The ‘running around’ period ends when you decide to stay in the community, and so to be baptised.

The Amish wear a very special outfit. They can have a blue or a white shirt with a vest and wear black pants with suspenders. Man grow a beard without a moustache once they are married. Usually they have a wide-brimmed straw  or felt hat. Women wear long dresses and a white prayer covering, and an apron, also pins and a hairnet to put their hair up; they cut their hair themselves.

What makes the Amish so special is their lifestyle. They don’t use modern technolgy, they travel in horse-drawn buggies, they stop going to school at the age of 15 to work on the farm. They’re Protestant, more particularly Anabaptist, which means they are against baptism during infancy because they believe that it’s an act that you should do when you decide to,  something that you have to do when you’re consenting and they live all together in peace, with a lot of respect side by side with non-Amish people. In fact we were surprised to realise that the Amish community is an open community.