[The Amish Village] Visit to the 19th century style living

I still have lots of stories and photos to talk about our last trip to Lancaster, PA. :)

Hopefully I can finish the travel posts before the end of the year.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

The Amish Village is a once-Amish-Village transformed into a tourist attraction where you can see a typical Amish household.

As I mentioned in the previous posts, I thought Amish history and life style was very interesting and curious,

The Amish Village was a "must-to-visit" place for me.

You can see my Lancaster and Amish country related post in the links below:

Pennsylvania dutch smorgasbord: 

http://heavenlypalate.blogspot.com/2011/10/smorgasbord-i-pennsylvania-dutch-style.html

Amish country: http://heavenlypalate.blogspot.com/2011/10/amish-village-counter-modernized.html

Red Caboose (Train motel): http://heavenlypalate.blogspot.com/2011/11/train-motel-red-caboose-strasburg-pa.html

An admission ticket includes 25-minute guided tour.

The tour starts at the kitchen/dining room of an authentic Amish farmhouse.

The Amish live in a similar way how their ancestors lived when they arrived from Europe and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania nearly 300 years ago. 

Pennsylvania Amish lives simple and non-materialistic life, with horse-powered vehicles, without electricity.

The rationale of Amish community for banning electricity is that television will jump into their lives, once electricity is allowed.

Then also will computer and internet follow subsequently.

That is why Pennsylvania Amish community opted to be disconnected from the modern society.

They pursue a simple and slow life, which focuses on God, their family and the entire Amish community.

The lamps are lighted by propane gas too. 

(This gas tank looks exactly same as the one at our backyard, which is attached to barbecue grill)

 The Pennsylvania Amish are dedicated to peace and humility, and in an effort to preserve their values they avoid the ways of the modern world, such as television, automobiles, or personal ornamentation.

The Amish don't hang photos or painting on the wall since it is a kind of showing off.

But, if there is a reason/practicality for hanging a picture, it is okay to hang on the wall.

That is why there are lots of wall calendars (with pictures or paintings) in an Amish house.

This is a family tree of an Amish family.

An average Amish couple has 8-12 children.

There also is a stand mixer and a fridge, powered by propane gas.

I've been wondering how Amish people keep their food fresh.

Stoves are powered by propane gas as well.

As guessed easily, each Amish household has multiple copies of bible.

All the Pennsylvania Amish have 8 years of formal Amish education.

But, every Pennsylvania Amish speaks three languages automatically: Pennsylvania dutch is their mother tongue, which is similar to high German, which is an oral language.

Therefore, they have to learn German, to attend  services at church and to read bible.

To live in the States, they start to learn English at school.

Amish school system has 8 years of education.

All the Amish school is one-room school and all the grades are mingled in the same school room.

Kitchen is the only place in the Amish house that has heater.

It's because the kitchen is where all the family members spend most of their time at home.

This was a separated outside kitchen for summer, to keep the heat out.

Pickles and jams are one of the specialties of Amish country.

Each household jars lots of vegetables and this pot is to be used to jar and can Vegetables.

There also was a old washing machine, also powered by propane gas.

Amish don't need a dryer because they hang their clothes outside of the house.

You can see more of Amish cloth-hanging art here below:

http://heavenlypalate.blogspot.com/2011/10/amish-village-counter-modernized.html

Amish women still use washboard~

Amish furniture is very popular in the area. They are really beautiful as they are all handmade.

Women make all the clothes for family. And the sewing machine is also very analogue, which is powered by pedaling, as you see in the photo.

Amish cloths are all homemade.

Black for bottom and colored tops(blue and purple).

Women's clothes are bunched up with pins.

On the same basis, the Amish women are not allowed to use any buttons, except for little girls.

Men are allowed to use buttons. (Isn't it so unfair?)

It's because buttons are, in a way, considered as personal ornamentation.

These are typical shoes Amish men and women put on.

They are mostly black and simple.

Amish women don't wear jackets or coats in the winter.

They gather the black cloak around them.

The brothers heading to the covered bridge~

After the guided indoor tour,

we went off to see other Amish building in the  village.

Lancaster, PA is very famous for many beautiful covered bridges.

The village ground was perfectly groomed and very picnic friendly.

If we hadn't have a huge smorgasbord lunch, we'd have thrown a picnic blanket right there.

There are several buggies we could sit on.

As Amish buggies don't use a tire, each buggy is attached to two or four metal wheels.

A typical Amish buggy looks like this.

You can see these buggies all the time in Lancaster area.

Then we went to see an one-room school.

There are school rules as there should be one in every school.

This is the classroom.

School books were displayed in the class room.

Well, they seem learning different thing what I've learned or my kids are learning at school.

What a pretty old stove it is!

Remi in the school room.

Wow. By this panel, I could certainly say that this school was not a public school. :)

Even any carol that contains a word related to "Christmas" is not to be taught at school in Ontario.

What a pity (and shame)!

I wish they could teach all the Christmas carols at school.

Yay. This should be 'the' catch phrase of our household. :)

It is said that there are about 200 Amish schools.

(The current Amish population is over 200,000. Their population has doubled every 20 years)

There was an Amish blacksmith shop.

There was a super-kiln at Blacksmith's

With a ceiling high chimney.

A big Amish population works in farming, and Tobacco is one of the popular crops Amish grow.

The funny thing is that Amish people grow tobacco, but do not smoke.

There also was a smokehouse where you could buy deli hams and stuff.

We went to the gift shop where I bought an Amish hat for Pablo,

and a wall calendar for a friend.

Good luck pigs were very cute. I forgot to ask what is the story behind a pig that brings a good luck.

I couldn't really associate a pig with a good luck, could you?

This is for Mr. D.

Exactly!

Kids should thoroughly understand what this means!

This was super cute, even though we didn't need one.

Now I regret that I didn't buy these figures of an authentic Amish family.

This could be a reason for us to go back to Lancaster again.

Kids were playing on the play structure next to the gift shop, while I was shopping at the gift shop.

I really like the scenery and views from Lancaster country.

On the way back to the farmhouse, Remi took some time to look out from the covered bridge.

Mother and her two kids in a covered bridge.

We went to see the barn and animals in it.

A black sheep

 This goat's horns are not really stuck. this one had its horns trapped. So it was not something to worry about. 

I saw only two activities of pigs, in my life.

They are either eating or sleeping.

The entire village was peaceful and quite.

I couldn't believe that there were people trying to skateboard there. But, there must be some daring people. 

We'd love to visit this nice old-time style country again in a near future.

A 19th century style life