What do the Amish do for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, etc.? Or do they have their own separate "holidays"?

-- Sandy (snd2@netzero.net), November 25, 2000

Answers

I know they celebrate Christmas Mary

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), November 25, 2000.

Since many of my neighbors are Amish, I can tell you they celebrate them just like we do, just not the trees for Christmas. There is no extravagent show of gift giving etc. but they have gifts. We exchange cookie plates every year and do the ordinary neighbor things. They really are not a mysterious as everyone makes them out to be. They just believe in Christian community and shun anything that would break it apart. diane in michigan

-- Diane Green (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), November 25, 2000.

Sandy, husband's father's side of the family is Amish, they celebrate most all of the traditional holidays, exception is Halloween, for obvious reasons, but they practice far less, way less, commercialism about it, especially Christmas. They love sending, and receiving, Christmas cards, however, due to the no telephone thing, letter writing is still a time honored tradition, and a major way of keeping in touch with friends and family members across the country. Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 26, 2000.

Hi Sandy,

The Amish in our neighborhood are Old Order Amish. They celebrate "old" Christmas which is the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan 6th) when the wise men visited the Christ Child. Otherwise, Easter is the same, New Years and Thanksgiving. You can tell when the Thnaksgiving meal is over, 'cause the men grab their rifles and go hunting. Some Amish even let their children go trick-or-treating on Halloween. The kids dress up in "yankee" costumes, and pretend for one night that they are in another world. Inside Amish joke, I guess. But what the heck, candy is candy. The volunteer firemen park the fire engines on the village square, fill fire boots full of goodies, and pass it out to the kids as they come by.

(:raig

-- Craig Miller (CMiller@ssd.com), November 27, 2000.

I used to live near an Amish community and I sure did like the people there. That was in Oklahoma not far from the Texas border, near Colgate, Oklahoma. The people there came mostly from Ohio. Such nice people. They made all the gifts they gave and gave freely. And they had a lot of good food, like home made cheeses and cookies and things like that. And hand made wooden furniture and other beautiful things. A few of them owned cars but one told me that they had to own cars that were dark in color and they couldn't drive them. They would hire local non- Amish people to drive them around. The Amish I knew were very good business people. I liked those I got to know.

-- Joe (jcole@apha.com), November 28, 2000.

There are "Old Order Amish", and then everybody else...The Old Order consider that other people who drive cars (dark or not) are not Amish at all...According to them, true Amish do not have telephones in their homes (they may have them at the end of their lane, or one used by several families ), they will not use farm equipment with tires ( mules can pull a tractor or a modern hay baler), no electricity from an outside wire (generators with gas or deisel are OK), no radios, battery powered or not,absolutely no automobiles (riding in one is OK, but even this is not done on a Sunday except for emergencies).Amish celebrate what they call "First Christmas" (our traditional Christmas day) and "Second Christams" as someone else mentioned above (Epiphany).No Christmas tree,no decorations, but all else is the same..lots of gifts and cookie exchanges as well as much visiting home to home.They celebrate Thanksgiving and special Holy days within their church. One of the best times we ever had was one 4th of July in Lancaster,PA. We invited all of our Amish friends (15 families) over for a barbeque. They do not celebrate the holiday as we do because it is not a spiritual holiday, but they LOVE to watch the fireworks..We bought several boxes of sparklers and almost wet our pants laughing as the tourists from New York City drove past our house gawking at the Amish children sitting on the lawn, flanked by American flags along the walkway, waving the sparklers. We are soley responsible for all of these folks telling their friends in the city that Amish people celebrate the 4th of July!!!! God bless.

-- Lesley (martchas@gateway.net), November 28, 2000.

What are some of ? the food that , the Amish prepare On Christmas Time. Do they celebrate Easter time? I would like to be in touch with someone that is Amish and be their pen pal thank you gloriajaielo@cs.com

-- Gloria J Aiello (gloriajaiello@cs.com), April 14, 2002.

What are some of ? the food that , the Amish prepare On Christmas Time. Do they celebrate Easter time? I would like to be in touch with someone that is Amish and be their pen pal thank you gloriajaiello@cs.com

-- Gloria J Aiello (gloriajaiello@cs.com), April 14, 2002.