Antiche, anzi antichissime sono le origini culturali che governano ancor'oggi queste comunità d'altri tempi che sopravvivono al progresso rifiutandolo per portare avanti vite vissute ed organizzate secondo i metodi che noi tutti usavamo secoli or sono: nei loro villaggi, ad economia ancora esclusivamente agricola, non esiste alcun macchinario tecnologico, non esiste elettricità, telefono, riscaldamento centralizzato, non esistono attrezzi che possano rendere più veloce ed agevole il lavoro di tutti i giorni ....
Gli Amish non hanno fretta, vivono ancora il tempo scandito dall'orologio della semplicità, al centro delle loro giornate pongono il loro Credo ed il lavoro, non conoscono alcune tra le patologie più note ai nostri giorni e del tutto nullo è il tasso di autismo presso la popolazione infantile.
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Sono quelle Amish vere e proprie comunità autosufficienti, piccoli villaggi dove si può trovare l'emporio, il fabbro, la falegnameria, la scuola, villaggi dove il denaro non ha alcun valore, almeno quello che ha per noi oggi ...
Sono quelle Amish vere e proprie comunità autosufficienti, piccoli villaggi dove si può trovare l'emporio, il fabbro, la falegnameria, la scuola, villaggi dove il denaro non ha alcun valore, almeno quello che ha per noi oggi ...
Lontano nel tempo ci conduce l'origine di questa cultura che ammiro molto per le regole di vita che detta, per la fede ed i valori familiari che la governano e da cui credo tutti potremmo imparare qualcosa: la storia della chiesa Amish inizia infatti nel 1693 anno a cui data uno scisma che ebbe origine in Svizzera all'interno di un gruppo di anabattisti* Mennoniti svizzeri e alsaziani guidati da Jakob Ammann, un sarto che divenne predicatore e poi vescovo e che proclamava la separazione dalle cose del mondo, l'etica del lavoro, la semplicità, l'obbedienza e l'umiltà al fine di guadagnare la Salvezza.
Gli Amish si rifanno alla Confessione di Fede di Dordrecht del 1632 e da alcuni studiosi di religioni vengono considerati come Protestanti Conservatori mentre altri li considerano appartenenti all'ampia famiglia delle chiese libere insieme con i Mennoniti, i Fratelli Quaccheri e altre, poiché con queste hanno numerosi punti dottrinali in comune.
Con l'inizio del XVIII secolo, molti Amish e Mennoniti emigrarono negli Stati Uniti - le più vaste comunità sono ancor oggi quelle appartenenti agli stati dell'Ohio, della Pennsylvania e dell'Indiana anche se ve ne sono alcuni in altri 19 stati - per poter godere di una maggiore libertà religiosa. Oggi i discendenti più tradizionali degli Amish continuano a parlare il Pennsylvania German, noto anche come "Pennsylvania Dutch", ed un dialetto tedesco-svizzero è quello che viene parlato dagli Old Order Amish nella contea di Adams, nell'Indiana. Si sa che nel 2000 più di 165.000 Old Order Amish vivevano negli Stati Uniti e circa 1.500 vivevano in Canada. mentre studi più recenti ci indicano cifre di crescita demografica pari al 120 % (basti pensare che la maggior parte degli Amish continuano ad avere 6-7 bambini per famiglia).
Le loro regole di vita sono principalmente dettate dall'ORDNUNG - ORDINE, un insieme di regole stabilite oralmente che talora variano da comunità a comunità nei piccoli dettagli, ma che nella sostanza sono in accordo con le Sacre Scritture cui gli Amish aderiscono a partire dai sedici anni di età e prevedono che si eviti l'utilizzo di ciò che possa in qualche modo danneggiare il Creato, (da ciò il rifiuto per i macchinari e l'elettricità), che si abbiglino in modo semplice ed essenziale - gli uomini portano il cappello e vesti scure dal taglio semplice senza cerniere lampo e in parte anche senza bottoni. I calzoni hanno fondo largo e orlo alto, per motivi di praticità e per motivi di modestia e da quando si sposano portano la barba, come richiede la Bibbia ma non i baffi, che associano con la vita militare e i suoi disvalori di violenza mentre le donne hanno abiti semplici medio-lunghi spesso con grembiuli e vestono cuffiette bianche se sposate, nere se sono nubili ed hanno capelli lunghissimi che non possono tagliare - proibisce la guida di veicoli che non siano il log cabino buggy trainato da un cavallo che costituisce il simbolo della loro appartenenza a questa comunità quando si trovano a praticare le strade comuni, prescrive il Rumspringa, ossia una sorta di periodo sabbatico durante il quale i giovani di età compresa tra i 16 ed i 21 anni possono lasciare temporaneamente la comunità per sperimentare come si vive nel mondo odierno e quindi tornare con la coscienza di volere appartenere alla comunità (ed allora viene loro impartito il battesimo) oppure di abbandonarla per sempre.
Solo così l'appartenenza alla comunità e l'adesione ai valori che la governano diviene pienamente consapevole e voluta.
Nella speranza di avervi fatto cosa gradita trattando questo argomento,
vi abbraccio con il cuore,
a presto 💕
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BIBLIOGRAFIA:
Brad Igou, The Amish in Their Own Words, Herald Press, 1999;
Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006;
Steven M. Nolt, A History of the Amish, Good Books, 2004;
Stephen Scott & Kenneth Pellman, Living Without Electricity, Good Books, 1990;
Ira Wagler, Growing Up Amish: A Memoir, Tyndale House, 2011;
Erik Wesner, Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, Jossey-Bass, 2010.
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Those of the Amish are real self-sufficient communities, small villages where you can find the emporium, the blacksmith, the carpentry, the school, villages where the money has no value, at least what it has for us today ...
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They're dating so much back in time the origins of this culture for which I feel a great deal of respect for the rules it dictates, for the faith and the family values that govern it and from which I believe we could all learn something: the story of the Amish Church begins in fact in 1693, the year in which it took place a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonites Anabaptists led by Jakob Ammann, a tailor who became preacher and then bishop, who proclaimed the separation from worldly things, the ethics of labor, simplicity, obedience, and humility in order to earn Salvation.
The Amish relate to the Confession of Faith of Dordrecht in 1632 and from some scholars of religions they are considered Protestant Conservatives while others consider them belonging to the large family of free churches along with the Mennonites, the Quackers Brothers and others since they have several doctrinal points in common.
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By the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites emigrated to the United States - the largest communities still belong to the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, although there are some of them in 19 other states - to enjoy a greater religious freedom. Today, the most traditional Amish descendants continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", and a German-Swiss dialect is that talked by the Old Order Amish in Adams County, Indiana. It is known that in 2000 more than 165,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States and about 1,500 lived in Canada, while recent studies point to 120% their demographic growth (just think that most Amish families have 6-7 children).
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Their rules of life are mainly dictated by the ORDNUNG - ORDER, a set of orally defined rules that sometimes vary from community to community in small details but which essentially conform to the Sacred Scriptures to which every Amish adhere from the age of 16 and forbid the use of everything might in some way damage the Creation (hence the refusal for machinery and electricity), impose them to be dressed in a simple and essential way - men wear hat and simple dresses in dark colours with no zippers and partly without buttons. Their trousers have wide bottom and high heels, for convenience and modesty reasons, and since they marry they let their beard grow, as the Bible requires, but not the mustache given they are associated with military life and its disvalue linked to violence while women have simple half-length dresses often with aprons and wear caps which are white if they are married, black if they are nubile and have long hair that they may not cut - it prohibits driving vehicles that are not the log cabinor buggy towed by a horse that constitutes the symbol of their belonging to this community when they drive on common roads, prescribes the Rumspringa, a sort of sabbatical period during which young people between the ages of 16 and 21 can temporarily leave the community to experience how they live in the ordinary world and then they may return with the consciousness of wanting to belong to the community (and then they are going to be Christened) or grow the decision to abandon it forever
Only thus the membership to the community and the acceptance of the rules that govern it becomes fully conscious and wanted.
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In essence, the ethics and appearance of these communities has remained the popular ones of the late XVIIIth century, they really stopped the time in the name of the most important values that should be part of the lives of each of us ... Amish people do not need to accumulate money, to create insurances, pension funds, and so on, because the solidarity and cooperation that govern those who are part of it makes it superfluous, they really live for each other and are all necessary and indispensable to the community which they belong to ... I seem to write about a philosophically ideal world, governed by Russian ideals, but this is the world which they are still fortunate to live in.
see you soon 💕
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BIBLIOGRAPHIC SOURCES:
Brad Igou, The Amish in Their Own Words, Herald Press, 1999;
Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006;
Steven M. Nolt, A History of the Amish, Good Books, 2004;
Stephen Scott & Kenneth Pellman, Living Without Electricity, Good Books, 1990;
Ira Wagler, Growing Up Amish: A Memoir, Tyndale House, 2011;
Erik Wesner, Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, Jossey-Bass, 2010.
Brad Igou, The Amish in Their Own Words, Herald Press, 1999;
Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006;
Steven M. Nolt, A History of the Amish, Good Books, 2004;
Stephen Scott & Kenneth Pellman, Living Without Electricity, Good Books, 1990;
Ira Wagler, Growing Up Amish: A Memoir, Tyndale House, 2011;
Erik Wesner, Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, Jossey-Bass, 2010.
Ancient, indeed, far ancient, are the cultural origins that still govern these communities of the past surviving progress by refusing it and choosing to carry on living according to the methods we have used for centuries: in their villages, still exclusively at agricultural economy, there is no technological machinery, there is no electricity, telephone, central heating, there are no tools that can make everyday work quicker and easier ....
The Amish are not in a hurry, they still live the time beaten by the clock of the simplicity, in the middle of their days they put their beliefs and work, they do not know some of the most well-known pathologies in our day and totally absent is the rate of autism amongst the infant population.
- picture 1
Those of the Amish are real self-sufficient communities, small villages where you can find the emporium, the blacksmith, the carpentry, the school, villages where the money has no value, at least what it has for us today ...
- picture 2
- picture 3
- picture 4
They're dating so much back in time the origins of this culture for which I feel a great deal of respect for the rules it dictates, for the faith and the family values that govern it and from which I believe we could all learn something: the story of the Amish Church begins in fact in 1693, the year in which it took place a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonites Anabaptists led by Jakob Ammann, a tailor who became preacher and then bishop, who proclaimed the separation from worldly things, the ethics of labor, simplicity, obedience, and humility in order to earn Salvation.
The Amish relate to the Confession of Faith of Dordrecht in 1632 and from some scholars of religions they are considered Protestant Conservatives while others consider them belonging to the large family of free churches along with the Mennonites, the Quackers Brothers and others since they have several doctrinal points in common.
- picture 5
- picture 6
- picture 8
- picture 9
- picture 10
By the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites emigrated to the United States - the largest communities still belong to the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, although there are some of them in 19 other states - to enjoy a greater religious freedom. Today, the most traditional Amish descendants continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as "Pennsylvania Dutch", and a German-Swiss dialect is that talked by the Old Order Amish in Adams County, Indiana. It is known that in 2000 more than 165,000 Old Order Amish lived in the United States and about 1,500 lived in Canada, while recent studies point to 120% their demographic growth (just think that most Amish families have 6-7 children).
- picture 11
- picture 12
Their rules of life are mainly dictated by the ORDNUNG - ORDER, a set of orally defined rules that sometimes vary from community to community in small details but which essentially conform to the Sacred Scriptures to which every Amish adhere from the age of 16 and forbid the use of everything might in some way damage the Creation (hence the refusal for machinery and electricity), impose them to be dressed in a simple and essential way - men wear hat and simple dresses in dark colours with no zippers and partly without buttons. Their trousers have wide bottom and high heels, for convenience and modesty reasons, and since they marry they let their beard grow, as the Bible requires, but not the mustache given they are associated with military life and its disvalue linked to violence while women have simple half-length dresses often with aprons and wear caps which are white if they are married, black if they are nubile and have long hair that they may not cut - it prohibits driving vehicles that are not the log cabinor buggy towed by a horse that constitutes the symbol of their belonging to this community when they drive on common roads, prescribes the Rumspringa, a sort of sabbatical period during which young people between the ages of 16 and 21 can temporarily leave the community to experience how they live in the ordinary world and then they may return with the consciousness of wanting to belong to the community (and then they are going to be Christened) or grow the decision to abandon it forever
Only thus the membership to the community and the acceptance of the rules that govern it becomes fully conscious and wanted.
- picture 13
- picture 14
- picture 15
- picture 16
- picture 17
- picture 18
- picture 19
In essence, the ethics and appearance of these communities has remained the popular ones of the late XVIIIth century, they really stopped the time in the name of the most important values that should be part of the lives of each of us ... Amish people do not need to accumulate money, to create insurances, pension funds, and so on, because the solidarity and cooperation that govern those who are part of it makes it superfluous, they really live for each other and are all necessary and indispensable to the community which they belong to ... I seem to write about a philosophically ideal world, governed by Russian ideals, but this is the world which they are still fortunate to live in.
In the hope of having done what you like by dealing with this topic,
I embrace you with my all my heart,
see you soon 💕
BIBLIOGRAPHIC SOURCES:
Brad Igou, The Amish in Their Own Words, Herald Press, 1999;
Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, Train Up a Child: Old Order Amish and Mennonite Schools, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006;
Steven M. Nolt, A History of the Amish, Good Books, 2004;
Stephen Scott & Kenneth Pellman, Living Without Electricity, Good Books, 1990;
Ira Wagler, Growing Up Amish: A Memoir, Tyndale House, 2011;
Erik Wesner, Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive, Jossey-Bass, 2010.
