The Amish travel by a carriage. Ma 晓毅摄
They come from Switzerland
Left New York, drove about three hours, came to the Philadelphia near the main settlements Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania town of Lang Kesi, the early years of the 18th century Amish from Europe Switzerland Piaoyang over the sea to North America, the first settlement here.
Amish people are living in 16th century German-speaking Switzerland, the Germanic dialects, they claim to be Protestant Anabaptist Mennonite followers, with strict religious organization, living in isolation, to refuse to accept the new things, living a simple life is known. Mid-17th century, this conservative sect sectarian conflict in severe crowding by other sects, the beginning of the 18th century, some Amish people moved to the U.S. east coast in the United States, Pennsylvania is their first and most important settlement in the United States the other 15 states and Canada in a small settlement.
Today, many young Amish withstand the temptation of spiritual and material, to embrace the modern life, but into modern life, people still claim to be Amish, many of them in the elderly after and voluntary return to the "old" state of Amish life. According to statistics, in the North American continent, has only about 200,000 Amish people still maintain the ancient religion and creed of life, they are called Amish people, "a small part of the residual", these remnants mainly settled in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Canada. They wore very simple, mostly men, collarless shirt, old pants suspenders, women wore no buttons, and the like with a pin to fix the blue or black robe, usually also wearing a white head cap - yes, Jane Austen's novel is the most frequently mentioned simple white cap. Out of time, they may be in the hat on top of a black prayer cap, a belt line up in a knot below the chin.
A white beard dressed in suspenders to make the Ami Shima driver on the self-styled "old" Amish people, but he surprisingly claimed to have been to China twenty years ago, traveled most parts of China, and Shangri-La in Yunnan Province, the construction of a modern hotel. Now older, it went back to the Amish people, "Parish", re-live the "old" life. See reporters from China, went so far as to say a lot of excitement he visited the Chinese city names, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Datong, Qufu, Dali and Kunming. When a reporter asked him, Amish people have a belief that is isolated, why do you traveled into China, would not contradict with religious rules? The Amish, said the old man, this is normal, many Amish people in the young does not comply with creed, wandering, and his second daughter, now in Beijing. When tired out when they went back to Amish parish, return to the "old" life.
The "proud" of fear and the "humble" and respected
"Old style" of the Amish people abide by the credo of life is: "proud" of fear and the "humble" and respected, pride usually refers to display status and vanity, humility is usually expressed as "obedience" and "entrusted" . They refused to use labor-saving technologies and equipment such as tractors, harvesters, etc., in order to be able to get neighbors to help farming, highlighting the unity and mutual assistance between ethnic groups. They do not use cars, to isolation, to avoid attract trouble. For centuries, the Amish are traveling carriage ride, or a lightweight skate. They do not use electricity, in order to avoid buying electrical goods display a status, and in the resulting competition between neighbors. They are not photographic, in order to avoid personal or family vanity. Their children only in the tribe run by "private school" literate, refused to junior high school or more education, especially the study of theory, that of everyday farm life without help, it will only lead to personal or material ambitions.
There are Amish people live in areas with shuttle traffic on the road against the background is often the old carriage carrying an "old" Amish in there just keep ahead. Beautiful forest scattered in the fields of housing, as long as the horse-drawn vehicles parked in front of the roof access without wires, basking on a long clothesline blue, black, white clothes, flying in the wind, that This no doubt must be Amish. Although the Amish refuse vehicles, electricity and other modern things, but born with a business mind. In their settlements around the most tourist is that they run furniture stores, fabric shops, stores and markets sauces. These stores sell all of their homemade products, furniture store selling furniture all hand-made Amish man, the Amish man married before to learn a trade, this craft is in general carpenter. Amish fabric store also has backing. After each harvest, Amish people to celebrate, women hold on together called "Patchwork bees," is that we eat and drink while chatting with old clothes and left side of fabric sewn patchwork blankets. They are hand-made blankets out of the parquet, there are no features of the doll face, became the world's intangible cultural heritage. If you want to know how the Amish heritage skills, to their sauce shop see at a glance. Amish sauce shop is the most attractive tourist place, there are hundreds of different kinds of sauces, a variety of sauce, chili sauce, vegetable sauce and jam, dazzling. Is the system behind the glass door sauce shop, braving many a pot of hot-air, next to a classroom, elderly aunt is giving ten Amish girls in the scene to explain how the system Amish butter. Amish vegetable market popularity is justified, because the vegetable market in the sale of all fruits and vegetables, meat, eggs are produced by Amish people, of course, natural, green, and no chemical pollution .
"Someone hit your right cheek, turn to him also to play"
October 2, 2006, a shooting shocked the United States. Pennsylvania, a milkman who burst into an Amish classroom kidnapped more than a dozen girls, rushed to the police before he opened fire, the results of 5 Amish girls dead 5 injured, gunman has committed suicide. When the killer shot to the girls, the sisters made a pair of adults are difficult to do things: sister, you shot me first. My sister said when I was second.
Madding crowd, who became a respected non-violent Amish innocent victims. However, a more amazing is that night, the Amish people's representatives to the murderer's home, to comfort his widow and children, also established the foundation to help his family. Attend the funeral of the murderer half of all Amish, they use concrete actions to express forgiveness to the murderer and his family comfort.
Amish such an approach from their creed. Difficult to sentence their culture. The Amish believe that God's attention to freedom, peace, family unity, brothers and sisters, anti-violence, not the army, do not accept any government funding, believes that "someone hit you in the right cheek, turn to him also to play "had no resistance to life, so there will be a tragedy to make the move difficult to understand ordinary people.
Amish This creed has been criticized American society. World War I and World War II, the pacifist Amish people's dissatisfaction caused serious when the night when the Amish carriage through when someone threw a stone to them from the roadside.
Amish family-oriented, like family, average family has seven children and never marry outside. As the population too small, inbreeding resulting from the genetic disease to become the biggest crisis of Amish life, because all the descendants are from 300 years ago the ancestors of hundreds from across the sea. Therefore, the Amish child mortality is very high, but the "old" Amish yet this phenomenon as "God's will" to accept, they generally refuse to pre-marital genetic testing. However, the young Amish people are getting ready to use modern medical treatment of children, the United States, Canada Amish Amish began with the marriage, beyond cross-edge "re-raised seedlings strong." Ma Xiaoyi
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