Amazing to know as all over the Spanish world they celebrate the Jan 6 Christmas . It is called "Dia de Reyes" or Day of the Kings commemorating the visit by the 3 Kings to Baby Jesus. Christmas eve December 24rth is celebrated as " Noche Buena" or The Good Night where the meal is served with Dec 25 being Christmas proper. Christmas is awesome in whatever form it comes... Merry Christmas.
My husband and I are from the country Georgia, not the state, though we have good peaches too. We are Orthodox Christians, and we celebrate the Old Calendar Christmas, January 6. I like that we have that in common with the Amish. We love to visit Lancaster county, PA and to shop at as many Amish businesses as we can find. We mentioned to an elderly Amish gentleman that we also celebrated Christmas on January 6, but he didn't know what we were talking about, just as you said, the Lancaster Amish don't seem to observe that date. But we love them anyway. Merry Christmas, everyone!
We celebrate regular Christmas but not to excess, just a simple meal and a few simple gifts, then on January 6 we have a full breakfast at Noon then a light supper and read stories to each other and sing traditional songs of Christ's love and importance in our lives.
My parents were born in Italy, and January 6th is a big deal there too. It seems that only in America do we throw Christmas away the day after, anxious to get on to the next thing instead of slowing down and enjoying the whole season. Thank you for posting this, and I enjoyed the photos of Lancaster. I live not too far from there and my husband and I go there a few times a year! We love it!
Merry Christmas from a fellow North Carolinian, Erik! I appreciate all your videos. I remember "Second Christmas" when I lived in Germany. It was a day to get together with family and friends. It was not as "intensive" as Christmas Day itself but much more relaxed. (Translation: lots of beer and schnapps) Having lots of Russian friends as well, I am familiar with the Orthodox Christmas on January 7, but I had no idea some Amish celebrated that too. Thank you so much. I always look forward to your videos.
Merry Christmas Erik. I always enjoyed Dec 26th. All the gift buying, wrapping, bakung and cooking for Christmas is over and you can relax and enjoy visiting with your family and friends. I never had a name for it until now. Going forward I'm calling it second Christmas. Thanks for another great video.
Merry Christmas Erik! The photography in this video is excellent. Always neat and informative content! Keep videos coming in 2024 please! Your first hand knowledge is a perfect way for us to understand the Amish also!
I was happy to find that drone footage (not mine), I thought it fit the theme really well. Looking forward to more videos, stay tuned b/c for something new in 2024 that I think you will like 🙂
I am not Amish, but we grew up celebrating Christmas and Old Christmas, January 6. We were Apostolic Holiness in religion. I am Missionary Baptist today. We were taught to celebrate Old Christmas and it was just as important as December 25th. The same way for both.
Thank you for posting this; it was so interesting. I grew up celebrating Christmas on 12/25 and on Jan 2 everything related to Christmas was taken down and packed away.
A beautiful video! Love the children’s singing and drone footage. Thank you for the gifts of your videos and for all you do to bring peace and light and understanding to the world. Merry Christmas, Eric.
Ur welcome thx to u husband of course and future children everything is going to be ok don't worry it always was just learning ok love and light mom and dad I love u future 😂🎉❤❤❤❤❤❤ have an amazing day 😚
Happy holidays if ur choosing that we celebrate everyday so we will celebrate family 🥳🥳😂❤🎉❤💪👋🥰😚🥳👍🙏🎶😁☺️🦞😍 good food together in spirit and soul and physical soon and if course all of us mim and dad great gift ever perfect divine timing as always tjc fir the gift if seeing everything insight i wamt the kids to as well in Jesus name bit of course some stuff is private and fir us love u 😂❤🎉
My high school sweetheart's family celebrated Serbian Christmas on Jan. 6th & 7th (in USA). They made sure to leave their tree up and had a wonderful family celebration.
I remember celebrating it the 25th and January 6th and that was with the Amish family the mishlers Meyersdale Somerset County PA. December 26th was just a regular day. May the blessings of the Season be with you throughout the year blessings to you and yours Merry Christmas from a Jewish friend in Pennsylvania
This was fascinating. I'm an Eastern Orthodox Christian, zn adult convert who grew up in a non-religious home. I've done *exactly* what the A ksh who celebrate both Christmax and Old Christmas do for three decades now, since I became Orthodox. December is for celebrating western Christmas with my (non-religious) family or Evangelical in-laws. January 7 (orthodox Christmas) is the day we celebrate Christ's birth. The reason is the same as with the Amish you describe.
Merry Christmas Erik and all of your viewers. We're spending this year in the Desert and it sure feels different. It doesn't feel like Christmas, compared to a cold water climate. Iyts great driving though, lol. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. God bless everyone. 🙏
We call January 6th Little Christmas or Twelfth Night. One year when the kids were young and my husband lost his job, we celebrated on this date, and were able to buy gifts at deep discounts since money was scarce.
Merry Christmas to you! I love your videos and I live very close to many Amish/mennonite communities in Guthrie KY. I buy fresh milk from one farm and gifted him and family a homemade sourdough bread and German Christmas cookies! I was happy to know Amish do celebrate Christmas. Could you please do a video about why the Amish go barefoot? I asked why and he said when they go in the garden the soil pits probiotics in the feet that get absorbed. That’s what I suspected. Could you maybe go into detail about why the children go barefoot too? Besides being fun.
We have Boxing Day here in Canada too, the day after Christmas. It's a statutory holiday. It originated as a holiday to give gifts to people in need. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "the day after Christmas day", and saying "traditionally on this day tradespeople, employees, etc., would receive presents or gratuities (a "Christmas box") from their customers or employers." My mother always told me that the Christmas box was leftovers from the Christmas feast of the rich folk.
Merry Christmas happy new year mr Eirk . Thank you for your wonderful cultural channel about Amish nation as I read Amish celebrate second Christmas Day after Christmas, when Christmas is observe what we might consider more traditional Christmas time for visiting family , small gifts exchanges , good food , fellowship. Additionally, some Amish communities will celebrate 6 th old Christmas on January. Epiphany is Christian feast day celebrated on January 6 , it’s day off full family and food for American Amish memorizes discovery of Jesus divinity to those around him . Good luck to you your dearest ones .
Absolutely. Even in today's Germany, on January 6th groups of Catholic children walk around dressed as the three wise men/kings, and houses get blessed and marked with "CMB" signs. The Amish originally came from an area of contact between Protestants and Catholics, or at least passed through one before emigrating, so they were probably once aware of this.
I've lived in Lancaster for thirty years. Dec 26th was always have to go to work with a giant hangover day. I wish the 24th 25th and 26th were all holidays.
Interesting!! I remember as a kid we celebrated Old Christmas to some extent. It was a day friends came and went during the day. Lots of food available all day long and in the evening we took down all the decorations. I never really knew why we did this as a kid and was only told it "was tradition". We had family in the day after Christmas and so the celebration continued. I always thought it was because of work schedules as my mom, a waitress, had to work Christmas Day, as did some of the other family members.
Hello from southern Ontario Canada we have a large amish people in st Jacob's elmira and Elora in surrounding areas. The Mennonite persons surrounded these areas mentioned too , I am 51 I spent summers on a amish farm when I was a teenager as my dad was a business person with the amish
Yes, 2nd Christmas Day is pretty much the same in Germany - meeting friends and family, having a good meal. Dec 26th is a public holiday in Germany, too. "Old Christmas" is when the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas - their church year has never been adopted to the Gregorian calendar.
When I lived in New York with very conservative Amish, we had Church then visiting all over the district on Old Christmas. Gifts, if given at all, were small, practical items, homemade pot holders and mitts for stove lids, stockings and hose, pot scrubbies, small manicure kits, a pouch of grossdawdy’s favorite pipe tobacco, canned goods, bibs or beaded nookie holders for babies, hankies for men, women, scholars, Amish/Plain coloring books and a set of crayons…homemade calendars without pictures…a mini-mag flashlight…It’s definitely the thought that counts, not material or extravagant, costly gifts. We used to make homemade icecream, a big kettle of popcorn, Kool Aid, and coffee, then gather for singing, not just the young folks, but adults, too. Weather allowing, the young folks might go ice-skating or sledding and have hot cocoa around a bonfire. If weather was really bad, we’d have a taffy pulling or play games like Blindman’s Bluff in the house. Sometimes the youngfolk boys would play pranks. (One year, the prediger banned pranks because a few boys went too far at Halloween. They uprooted a family’s heisli and put it on roof of the front porch. In the way early morning one of the little girls went out half asleep and fell into the hole, breaking her leg. The same gang got roaring drunk and vandalized an English man’s car by tipping it on its side and incorporating his mailbox into a snowman. The last prank I thought was funny cause nothing was damaged and it took a little creativity to think of it. The other two pranks weren’t funny. Someone got hurt bad enough to need the hospital and later, to get surgery to regain them ability walk normally and to work. Flipping the neighbor’s car cost $8,500 and was mean-spirited vandalism. Those that had joined church found themselves in der Bann and had to repair/pay for the damages.) Many young folks might stay out way late courting, but everyone was expected to show up in time for chores, work, school the next day, which would be just a normal day.
I've got plans with my dad and my mom (they're divorced). My dad is taking me to breakfast tomorrow. I'm bringing green bean casserole to my sister tomorrow night. I'm going to my dad's for dinner on Christmas. I always get my uncle a bottle of wine. He takes me out to lunch a lot.
In Germany, 25th _and_ 26th of December are both federal holidays even today. December 24th is not a public holiday (if it's not a Sunday, shops are open until noon like on December 31st, for last-minute shopping), but for many families is the only day they go to church and the day when presents are distributed (in the evening). I guess the fact that Christmas in Germany takes 2 1/2 days is a remnant of the Middle Ages, when the social part of Christmas celebrations took at least an entire week. Even in today's Germany, very little work is done between December 24th and January 1st. This period is informally referred to as "between the years". If you go to work during this time and you are not in retail, you expect a quiet time and don't expect to see many colleagues. A lot of people take one of their annual 4 to 6 weeks of paid vacation in this time. January 7th is the date of Christmas in the Orthodox churches. That makes January 6th Orthodox Christmas Eve. A logical date for additional celebrations, perhaps in part because of the importance of Christmas Eve in German culture, but most importantly because January 6th is the traditional end of the Christmas season in Germany. (It's the traditional time to get rid of Christmas trees and decorations.)
Well done, as usual. Your videos never disappoint. Entertaining, informative, thoughtful, and professional. (It's me from Sheetz!) LOL 😂 Happy Holidays to You! 🎉 Frohe Weihnachten aus Langester Kaundi! 🎄
Hello Eric. I enjoyed this video and me three Christmases of the Amish. But I like them to give you a comment about mince meat pie. I served a mincemeat pie as Christmas as I usually do on Thanksgiving along with others. It should be noted that mincemeat pie is an all New England favorite but it is dying out in this generation because People don’t understand what’s in it. A few recipes still call for some form of meat during the Middle Ages when it got its start its of venison dried fruits sugar and fruits things that have been preserved and a healthy dose of liquor of some form were put up and allowed to age for several months The way people still do with the fruit cake making an October and dressing it with liquor. Most mincemeat today only has dried fruit and raisins and sugars and molasses in it. It does or doesn’t contain liquor. I always add a little Brandy to the store-bought bottle I pick up and I augment it with a few other things like orange peel and lemon peel. Are usually let it sit a few days before I make the pie and I make the pie several days before I intend to serve it. It is always been considered a sweet savory. It’s very good with ice cream or whipped cream but I personally like it plain. All of my siblings I wish there were three others name it is their favorite pie. The nice thing about mince pie is the last piece that may be four days old taste much better than the first piece you cut. My father always would warm his eyes like that cold. I think if you have a couple of more times you will develop quite a taste for it. I’ve eaten it since I was a little kid and I am now in my 60s. I run into many people in my age group down to maybe the mid 40s who like it Yet have trouble finding it. But under that age group it is dying out like so many other things. You are right Charles dickens mentions it in several places in his writing. In England mince meat pies are made smaller in individual servings. For an interesting tutorial you might look up Mary Barry and Paul Hollywood to well-known English cooks who are quite wonderful Mary being quite old now and they have a Christmas special where they make their British treats and minced pie is when they both smack their lips over and it is well dressed with liquor. I really enjoy your site as I’ve told you before and you were one of the best voices on the Internet. I often wonder what you look like. You have the sort of voice that should be narrating PBS specials. Thanks again and you have a merry Christmas wherever you’re spending it this year and a happy new year. Keep up your wonderful work. I’ll catch yourself another piece of mincemeat pie.
I live in Tuscarawas County next to Holmes. I have a lot of Amish friends so I knew about Old Christmas I don’t think I have heard of the Second Christmas. I’m going to ask them next time I see them.
My dad who is a old order Mennonite was born in December 26 he was born before the midwife got to my grandparents house my great mennonite grandmother helped my grandmother to bring my dad in to the world. Lancaster Pennsylvania has Mennonite too. My dad is a old order Amish community from south American. His family moved from south American to old order Amish community in Yates county New York. I'm raised as a new order Mennonite it was not easy when we go visit his parents me and my three daughters have to put in our Amish dress we do the old Christmas with his parents and we do Christmas dinner with my mennonite grandparents and parents and all my brothers and sisters and family members. My mennonite dad and English mom let my husband and son wear their Amish clothing.
How did you ever come close enough to be friends with the Amish? I'm from Illinois and lived near them. I have found them to be a upstanding and good peoples as I have frequented Amish stores near me. However, not becoming close friends.
I don’t think this question is directed at me, but since I had this experience, I’ll try to answer. First off, I had a real interest in their spirituality and beliefs. It was part of my spiritual journey, planned by God. When I asked sincere questions of a religious nature after arranging to meet with several of the ministers and the Bishop and his wife, I think it was a pleasant surprise to NOT focus at all on outward distinctions of dress, buggies, etc. These things came up has a matter of course in the context of the spiritual. I secured permission to attend a church service, and, although I understood very little, I was drawn to the mode and spirit of them. I began studying high German (church German), via college classes and tried as much as possible to learn Penna Dutch, which is a Germanic dialect. I requested people speak to me and around me in Deitsch. I tried to speak it, even if it was just a word or two of what I was saying, and the rest in English. After about six months, I was a frequent drop-in visitor at the homes of three families. Whatever they were doing, I joined in and learned some skills. They could be butchering chickens, canning green beans, gathering hay or silage, stacking bales in the hay mow, shoveling manure, doing laundry…it didn’t matter. I did that to the best of my ability. Being female, I did the womenfolk’s jobs. I began getting invites to come on Saturday and stay over until Sunday for church. A time came when the apartment I was subletting in town, which I thought was a legitimate, legal arrangement came to an abrupt end when the owner returned from Europe and discovered two complete strangers, college kids, no less, living in her apartment. The initial tenant on the lease had moved in with her boyfriend and sublet (and price-gouged) illegally. My roommate in turn took advantage of me in the same manner. A huge argument and fight ensued in which the owner’s boyfriend and two male friends bodily threw us and our stuff out onto the lawn. The lady upstairs called the police. The tenant and my roommate who knew it was illegal got arrested for rent fraud. Initially, they arrested me too. Once it was straightened out in the police station, they let the three of us go, the tenant on the lease and my roommate to appear in court at a later date. Since I was entirely ignorant of the scheme, I was let go with an admonition to check out living arrangements thoroughly in the future. My roommate and I were given 24 hours from the time of release to remove all of our possessions from the property or be fined $75 per day, after five days, our stuff would be taken as trash. My roommate was a social butterfly and within a few hours, had people to pick up her things and a place to bring them to. My few friends from college had neither vehicles nor the space for me to move in. To say I was very upset was an understatement. I ended up riding my bike the 16 miles in the dark to my Amish friend’s, knocking on their door at 10:30 pm, very late for people whose work day began at 4:45 AM. I don’t remember this, but they said I was literally shaking like a leaf and Grosmommy gave me some kind of nasty tasting tonic and put me to bed in her youngest daughter’s room. (She was away visiting in Indiana to work and check out a young man as a potential husband.) The next morning, my friends did their chores a little early, fed me a quick breakfast of coffee soup, hitched up the team to the utility wagon, and four of us drove the 16 miles to town for my stuff, and them 16 miles back to their house. I was in my senior year of college which was due to start the next week. Having nowhere to stay, they gave me an unfinished room upstairs dedicated to the storage of mostly empty canning jars, sugaring vats, extra stove pipes, that sort of thing. A makeshift bed was procured, rusty box spring, large piece of plywood, a used mattress from neighbors, unused set of drawers from the barn, washed, and painted, two unused church benches for shelves, an electrical wire spool for an end table. I set up my card table and folding chair for a desk and created a closet of sorts in the corner with two flat sheets, clothesline, a tree branch, and nails. I put the bed beside the stovepipe to the cookstove below and a floor vent. I later made curtains from the required dark blue blackout material for the one window. The canning jars were put in the cellar and the bigger items in barn and woodshop. It became my home for a year and a half. I got to school and work by bicycle in warm weather, and a paid ride or Greyhound bus in cold or rainy weather. I had regular chores like everyone else, chop kindling and 25 pieces of stove wood and put them in the wood box, when present in the afternoon, milk two cows, shovel hand clean their stalls, dishes when available, same with laundry, ironing, fold laundry and put it away or in a neat pile on the chest up top the stairs if everyone was in bed. My “method” obviously can’t be reproduced, but I do suggest you show interest in a particular Amish person of the same sex and approximate age, role in life such as a father, mother, tradesperson. The Amish are like everyone else. They come in all personality types, temperaments, morals, likes and dislikes. Make it your goal primarily to make a friend. Give that lots of time because of vastly different cultures. The outward stuff is of interest in as much as it comes into a friendship. In the meantime, express interest in the outward in the process. If you’re riding in a buggy, ask buggy and horse questions then. If you get an answer to something with which you disagree, it’s okay to express doubt, but do it agreeably. My situation was highly unusual, especially among the very conservative Swartzentrubers. Don’t expect to move in! In recent years, the “world” has tried to make inroads into the Amish, forcing upon them laws they find offensive and also, people have taken advantage of them, often by subterfuge. (Do not take the Swartzentrubers to court. You’ll lose. And if you win, for example, a township forces indoor toilets and plumbing, they will pack up and move en masse.) They will be suspicious. You’ll have to prove yourself, something that takes time and effort to overcome. Don’t get insulted. Keep trying. Once you’ve made a friend, however, you’ll find your friend is loyal and generous.
I was expecting that you will explain why is old Christmas there. It is because of "old" or Jillian calendar. Roman Catholic Church switched to "new"/Gregorian calendar during time of pope Gregor (or something similar. Even some of Orthodox churches switched to new calendar. In Serbian Orthodox Church we celebrate it on January seven. I guess Amish missed one day due to incorrect calculations. At the time, when he calendar was introduced, there was 10 days difference, now is 13. They probably didn't update it since it went from 12 to 13.
Christ in my opinion should be celebrated from 24th to the 7th ish. Why a single or a couple of days. I would also like to add Vetereans day why one day? MERRY CHRISTMAS
Yes, although they don’t see themselves that way! Many do not think of Catholics as Christian, just as many Protestants don’t think of Catholics or Amish to be Christians! In the 1970’s I lived with Swartzentruber Amish while in college in my early 20’s. The experience prepared me well for converting three and a half decades later to what one now calls “Traditional” Catholicism. There are a few highly significant differences in doctrine, but the Amish manner of thinking and much of the outward practices prepared me so well that all I needed was to make a profession of faith in doctrinal matters. As for the lifestyle, I slid right into place as if I’d grown up Traditional Catholic. So far as I’m concerned, it’s the perfect match between my beliefs and my lifestyle. There is also a lot of similarity of Amish to Hasidic Jews. Different doctrine, but same thought process and outward manifestation.
Second Christmas (Boxing day) also celebrated in Canada 🇨🇦.
Raised Episcopalian. January 6 is the feast of the Magi. It’s the 12th day of Christmas and it’s when the wiseman came
Yes aka Epiphany as noted in the vid 👍
Amazing to know as all over the Spanish world they celebrate the Jan 6 Christmas . It is called "Dia de Reyes" or Day of the Kings commemorating the visit by the 3 Kings to Baby Jesus. Christmas eve December 24rth is celebrated as " Noche Buena" or The Good Night where the meal is served with Dec 25 being Christmas proper. Christmas is awesome in whatever form it comes... Merry Christmas.
December 26th is the Second Day of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Makes sense to call it Second Christmas.
My husband and I are from the country Georgia, not the state, though we have good peaches too. We are Orthodox Christians, and we celebrate the Old Calendar Christmas, January 6. I like that we have that in common with the Amish. We love to visit Lancaster county, PA and to shop at as many Amish businesses as we can find. We mentioned to an elderly Amish gentleman that we also celebrated Christmas on January 6, but he didn't know what we were talking about, just as you said, the Lancaster Amish don't seem to observe that date. But we love them anyway. Merry Christmas, everyone!
As December 26th is the second of the Twelve Days of Christmas, it makes sense to call it Second Christmas.
December 26th is Boxing Day in England. It's also my son's birthday. January 6th is when we take down all of our decorations.
We celebrate regular Christmas but not to excess, just a simple meal and a few simple gifts, then on January 6 we have a full breakfast at Noon then a light supper and read stories to each other and sing traditional songs of Christ's love and importance in our lives.
So beautiful. Thanks for giving me a glimmer of my homestate at Christmas time. ☃️💙❄️
My mom called January 6 old Christmas too we always left out tree up until then
Erik: This is your best video yet. Especially the close. Merry Christmas to you and those special to you.
Thank you John! Happy I was able to experience & include that part. Merry Christmas!
Listening to the children in the end was so sweet!
Glad you liked that part, that was from just this past week. It was really nice to visit that program, the children put a lot of work into it.
Many Americans celebrate 2nd Christmas as the day when you return gifts to the store.
That’s a good one! 😂
My parents were born in Italy, and January 6th is a big deal there too. It seems that only in America do we throw Christmas away the day after, anxious to get on to the next thing instead of slowing down and enjoying the whole season. Thank you for posting this, and I enjoyed the photos of Lancaster. I live not too far from there and my husband and I go there a few times a year! We love it!
Merry Christmas from a fellow North Carolinian, Erik! I appreciate all your videos. I remember "Second Christmas" when I lived in Germany. It was a day to get together with family and friends. It was not as "intensive" as Christmas Day itself but much more relaxed. (Translation: lots of beer and schnapps) Having lots of Russian friends as well, I am familiar with the Orthodox Christmas on January 7, but I had no idea some Amish celebrated that too. Thank you so much. I always look forward to your videos.
Kold snaps is the best best :D
Merry Christmas Erik. I always enjoyed Dec 26th. All the gift buying, wrapping, bakung and cooking for Christmas is over and you can relax and enjoy visiting with your family and friends. I never had a name for it until now. Going forward I'm calling it second Christmas. Thanks for another great video.
Merry Christmas!
We celebrate Christmas on Dec 24 in Denmark and consider Dec 25 as second Christmas day.
Merry Christmas Erik! The photography in this video is excellent. Always neat and informative content! Keep videos coming in 2024 please! Your first hand knowledge is a perfect way for us to understand the Amish also!
I was happy to find that drone footage (not mine), I thought it fit the theme really well. Looking forward to more videos, stay tuned b/c for something new in 2024 that I think you will like 🙂
Merry Christmas, Erik. Hope you, yours, and all members of Amish America have a wonderful holiday season.
Thank you and you too!
I am not Amish, but we grew up celebrating Christmas and Old Christmas, January 6. We were Apostolic Holiness in religion. I am Missionary Baptist today. We were taught to celebrate Old Christmas and it was just as important as December 25th. The same way for both.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Thank you, you too!
Thank you for sharing the Amish culture. Be blessed everyone!
Merry Christmas Erick, thank you for sharing such wonderful information with us.
Merry Christmas! Glad you liked it
Thank you for posting this; it was so interesting. I grew up celebrating Christmas on 12/25 and on Jan 2 everything related to Christmas was taken down and packed away.
Thank you for your in-sites to the Amish holidays!🇺🇸🙏
A beautiful video! Love the children’s singing and drone footage. Thank you for the gifts of your videos and for all you do to bring peace and light and understanding to the world. Merry Christmas, Eric.
Ur welcome thx to u husband of course and future children everything is going to be ok don't worry it always was just learning ok love and light mom and dad I love u future 😂🎉❤❤❤❤❤❤ have an amazing day 😚
Happy holidays if ur choosing that we celebrate everyday so we will celebrate family 🥳🥳😂❤🎉❤💪👋🥰😚🥳👍🙏🎶😁☺️🦞😍 good food together in spirit and soul and physical soon and if course all of us mim and dad great gift ever perfect divine timing as always tjc fir the gift if seeing everything insight i wamt the kids to as well in Jesus name bit of course some stuff is private and fir us love u 😂❤🎉
@@ellevictory1339who are you talking to? It makes no sense!
My high school sweetheart's family celebrated Serbian Christmas on Jan. 6th & 7th (in USA). They made sure to leave their tree up and had a wonderful family celebration.
I remember celebrating it the 25th and January 6th and that was with the Amish family the mishlers Meyersdale Somerset County PA. December 26th was just a regular day. May the blessings of the Season be with you throughout the year blessings to you and yours Merry Christmas from a Jewish friend in Pennsylvania
This was fascinating. I'm an Eastern Orthodox Christian, zn adult convert who grew up in a non-religious home. I've done *exactly* what the A ksh who celebrate both Christmax and Old Christmas do for three decades now, since I became Orthodox. December is for celebrating western Christmas with my (non-religious) family or Evangelical in-laws. January 7 (orthodox Christmas) is the day we celebrate Christ's birth. The reason is the same as with the Amish you describe.
🎄Hallicher Grischtdaag Eric!🎄
May the day be relaxing and fun 💕
Nice video on soft music opening. Have a great Christmas!
Have a blessed Christmas and New Year
Love the imagery, thanks!
Merry Christmas Erik and all of your viewers. We're spending this year in the Desert and it sure feels different. It doesn't feel like Christmas, compared to a cold water climate. Iyts great driving though, lol. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. God bless everyone. 🙏
Have never done a desert Christmas but where I am today it feels like spring! Yes Christmas goes better with cold
We call January 6th Little Christmas or Twelfth Night. One year when the kids were young and my husband lost his job, we celebrated on this date, and were able to buy gifts at deep discounts since money was scarce.
Merry Christmas and wishes for a blessed and Happy New Year !
Merry Christmas from a devoted fan from Florida🌲
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you! I love your videos and I live very close to many Amish/mennonite communities in Guthrie KY. I buy fresh milk from one farm and gifted him and family a homemade sourdough bread and German Christmas cookies! I was happy to know Amish do celebrate Christmas. Could you please do a video about why the Amish go barefoot? I asked why and he said when they go in the garden the soil pits probiotics in the feet that get absorbed. That’s what I suspected. Could you maybe go into detail about why the children go barefoot too? Besides being fun.
We have Boxing Day here in Canada too, the day after Christmas. It's a statutory holiday. It originated as a holiday to give gifts to people in need. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "the day after Christmas day", and saying "traditionally on this day tradespeople, employees, etc., would receive presents or gratuities (a "Christmas box") from their customers or employers." My mother always told me that the Christmas box was leftovers from the Christmas feast of the rich folk.
Ty! Merry Christmas to you ❤
Same to you!
Very interesting video. Filled with info. I enjoyed the children singing at the end of video.
Merry Christmas Erik and Happy New Year
Another super insight, happy Christmas/holiday/seasons greetings to you :)
Thank you kindly!
Happy holidays and happy 2024
Merry Christmas happy new year mr Eirk . Thank you for your wonderful cultural channel about Amish nation as I read Amish celebrate second Christmas Day after Christmas, when Christmas is observe what we might consider more traditional Christmas time for visiting family , small gifts exchanges , good food , fellowship. Additionally, some Amish communities will celebrate 6 th old Christmas on January. Epiphany is Christian feast day celebrated on January 6 , it’s day off full family and food for American Amish memorizes discovery of Jesus divinity to those around him . Good luck to you your dearest ones .
Yes ephany!
Merry Christmas 🎄🙏 from a highway in Alberta 🇨🇦
Merry Christmas and Happy new year.
Merry Christmas!
January 6th in Latin America is known as “King’s Day” (día de Los Reyes). It’s a Catholic tradition.
Absolutely. Even in today's Germany, on January 6th groups of Catholic children walk around dressed as the three wise men/kings, and houses get blessed and marked with "CMB" signs. The Amish originally came from an area of contact between Protestants and Catholics, or at least passed through one before emigrating, so they were probably once aware of this.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Thank you Erik always enjoy your videos entertaining and informative
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Merry Christmas Brother Wesner!
Same to you!
Merry Christmas, we celebrate Boxing Day in Canada too.
Thanks Eric & Merry Christmas !
Merry Christmas from rural Missouri.
January 6 is Epiphany which is celebrated throughout the Christian church.
Blessed Christmas Season and New Year
Lovely🌲 TY
Merry Christmas to you and yours Erik!!
Perfect ending! Thanks for sharing this information. Merry Christmas to you & yours! (Is Frohe Weihnachten used in PA Dutch?)
Very interesting! Had to share! ❤
I've lived in Lancaster for thirty years. Dec 26th was always have to go to work with a giant hangover day. I wish the 24th 25th and 26th were all holidays.
As always more interesting information. TFS Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. 🎄🥂👍
Same to you!
Interesting!! I remember as a kid we celebrated Old Christmas to some extent. It was a day friends came and went during the day. Lots of food available all day long and in the evening we took down all the decorations. I never really knew why we did this as a kid and was only told it "was tradition". We had family in the day after Christmas and so the celebration continued. I always thought it was because of work schedules as my mom, a waitress, had to work Christmas Day, as did some of the other family members.
Thank you
very interesting! Thank You!
Hello from southern Ontario Canada we have a large amish people in st Jacob's elmira and Elora in surrounding areas. The Mennonite persons surrounded these areas mentioned too , I am 51 I spent summers on a amish farm when I was a teenager as my dad was a business person with the amish
Merry Christmas, Erik!!!
Same to you!
Yes, 2nd Christmas Day is pretty much the same in Germany - meeting friends and family, having a good meal. Dec 26th is a public holiday in Germany, too.
"Old Christmas" is when the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas - their church year has never been adopted to the Gregorian calendar.
Nice singing! Thanks!
Glad you liked it, the sang quite a few songs. This was actually only a portion of the school children singing for the skit
Mery Christmas, Erik
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas
When I lived in New York with very conservative Amish, we had Church then visiting all over the district on Old Christmas. Gifts, if given at all, were small, practical items, homemade pot holders and mitts for stove lids, stockings and hose, pot scrubbies, small manicure kits, a pouch of grossdawdy’s favorite pipe tobacco, canned goods, bibs or beaded nookie holders for babies, hankies for men, women, scholars, Amish/Plain coloring books and a set of crayons…homemade calendars without pictures…a mini-mag flashlight…It’s definitely the thought that counts, not material or extravagant, costly gifts. We used to make homemade icecream, a big kettle of popcorn, Kool Aid, and coffee, then gather for singing, not just the young folks, but adults, too. Weather allowing, the young folks might go ice-skating or sledding and have hot cocoa around a bonfire. If weather was really bad, we’d have a taffy pulling or play games like Blindman’s Bluff in the house. Sometimes the youngfolk boys would play pranks. (One year, the prediger banned pranks because a few boys went too far at Halloween. They uprooted a family’s heisli and put it on roof of the front porch.
In the way early morning one of the little girls went out half asleep and fell into the hole, breaking her leg. The same gang got roaring drunk and vandalized an English man’s car by tipping it on its side and incorporating his mailbox into a snowman. The last prank I thought was funny cause nothing was damaged and it took a little creativity to think of it. The other two pranks weren’t funny. Someone got hurt bad enough to need the hospital and later, to get surgery to regain them ability walk normally and to work. Flipping the neighbor’s car cost $8,500 and was mean-spirited vandalism. Those that had joined church found themselves in der Bann and had to repair/pay for the damages.) Many young folks might stay out way late
courting, but everyone was expected to show up in time for chores, work, school the next day, which would be just a normal day.
Its going to be 59f, tomorrow, Christmas. One day of the year i wished it snowed. Im in Holmes co Ohio
Hope you have good Christmas and New Year Erik.. Thank you for all the interesting and educational videos you have presented us..🌲🌲🌲🍾🎄🎉🎊🎆
I know I'm an hour early (before midnight on the 5th) but merry old christmas. :)
I've got plans with my dad and my mom (they're divorced). My dad is taking me to breakfast tomorrow. I'm bringing green bean casserole to my sister tomorrow night. I'm going to my dad's for dinner on Christmas. I always get my uncle a bottle of wine. He takes me out to lunch a lot.
In Germany, 25th _and_ 26th of December are both federal holidays even today. December 24th is not a public holiday (if it's not a Sunday, shops are open until noon like on December 31st, for last-minute shopping), but for many families is the only day they go to church and the day when presents are distributed (in the evening). I guess the fact that Christmas in Germany takes 2 1/2 days is a remnant of the Middle Ages, when the social part of Christmas celebrations took at least an entire week. Even in today's Germany, very little work is done between December 24th and January 1st. This period is informally referred to as "between the years". If you go to work during this time and you are not in retail, you expect a quiet time and don't expect to see many colleagues. A lot of people take one of their annual 4 to 6 weeks of paid vacation in this time.
January 7th is the date of Christmas in the Orthodox churches. That makes January 6th Orthodox Christmas Eve. A logical date for additional celebrations, perhaps in part because of the importance of Christmas Eve in German culture, but most importantly because January 6th is the traditional end of the Christmas season in Germany. (It's the traditional time to get rid of Christmas trees and decorations.)
Old Christmas here in Holmes County! 👍
Well done, as usual. Your videos never disappoint. Entertaining, informative, thoughtful, and professional. (It's me from Sheetz!) LOL 😂
Happy Holidays to You! 🎉 Frohe Weihnachten aus Langester Kaundi! 🎄
Was great to happen to meet you there! Wish I could have invited you to grab a coffee right there but I was finishing up this video 😄
Hello Eric. I enjoyed this video and me three Christmases of the Amish. But I like them to give you a comment about mince meat pie. I served a mincemeat pie as Christmas as I usually do on Thanksgiving along with others. It should be noted that mincemeat pie is an all New England favorite but it is dying out in this generation because People don’t understand what’s in it. A few recipes still call for some form of meat during the Middle Ages when it got its start its of venison dried fruits sugar and fruits things that have been preserved and a healthy dose of liquor of some form were put up and allowed to age for several months The way people still do with the fruit cake making an October and dressing it with liquor. Most mincemeat today only has dried fruit and raisins and sugars and molasses in it. It does or doesn’t contain liquor. I always add a little Brandy to the store-bought bottle I pick up and I augment it with a few other things like orange peel and lemon peel. Are usually let it sit a few days before I make the pie and I make the pie several days before I intend to serve it. It is always been considered a sweet savory. It’s very good with ice cream or whipped cream but I personally like it plain. All of my siblings I wish there were three others name it is their favorite pie. The nice thing about mince pie is the last piece that may be four days old taste much better than the first piece you cut. My father always would warm his eyes like that cold. I think if you have a couple of more times you will develop quite a taste for it. I’ve eaten it since I was a little kid and I am now in my 60s. I run into many people in my age group down to maybe the mid 40s who like it Yet have trouble finding it. But under that age group it is dying out like so many other things. You are right Charles dickens mentions it in several places in his writing. In England mince meat pies are made smaller in individual servings. For an interesting tutorial you might look up Mary Barry and Paul Hollywood to well-known English cooks who are quite wonderful Mary being quite old now and they have a Christmas special where they make their British treats and minced pie is when they both smack their lips over and it is well dressed with liquor. I really enjoy your site as I’ve told you before and you were one of the best voices on the Internet. I often wonder what you look like. You have the sort of voice that should be narrating PBS specials. Thanks again and you have a merry Christmas wherever you’re spending it this year and a happy new year. Keep up your wonderful work. I’ll catch yourself another piece of mincemeat pie.
I live in Tuscarawas County next to Holmes. I have a lot of Amish friends so I knew about Old Christmas I don’t think I have heard of the Second Christmas. I’m going to ask them next time I see them.
Just this wk. my Amish(Swartentrubers) were going off to buy Christmas gift at the local Dollar General ;)
My dad who is a old order Mennonite was born in December 26 he was born before the midwife got to my grandparents house my great mennonite grandmother helped my grandmother to bring my dad in to the world. Lancaster Pennsylvania has Mennonite too. My dad is a old order Amish community from south American. His family moved from south American to old order Amish community in Yates county New York. I'm raised as a new order Mennonite it was not easy when we go visit his parents me and my three daughters have to put in our Amish dress we do the old Christmas with his parents and we do Christmas dinner with my mennonite grandparents and parents and all my brothers and sisters and family members. My mennonite dad and English mom let my husband and son wear their Amish clothing.
Amen
How did you ever come close enough to be friends with the Amish? I'm from Illinois and lived near them. I have found them to be a upstanding and good peoples as I have frequented Amish stores near me. However, not becoming close friends.
I don’t think this question is directed at me, but since I had this experience, I’ll try to answer. First off, I had a real interest in their spirituality and beliefs. It was part of my spiritual journey, planned by God. When I asked sincere questions of a religious nature after arranging to meet with several of the ministers and the Bishop and his wife, I think it was a pleasant surprise to NOT focus at all on outward distinctions of dress, buggies, etc. These things came up has a matter of course in the context of the spiritual. I secured permission to attend a church service, and, although I understood very little, I was drawn to the mode and spirit of them. I began studying high German (church German), via college classes and tried as much as possible to learn Penna Dutch, which is a Germanic dialect. I requested people speak to me and around me in Deitsch. I tried to speak it, even if it was just a word or two of what I was saying, and the rest in English. After about six months, I was a frequent drop-in visitor at the homes of three families. Whatever they were doing, I joined in and learned some skills. They could be butchering chickens, canning green beans, gathering hay or silage, stacking bales in the hay mow, shoveling manure, doing laundry…it didn’t matter. I did that to the best of my ability. Being female, I did the womenfolk’s jobs. I began getting invites to come on Saturday and stay over until Sunday for church. A time came when the apartment I was subletting in town, which I thought was a legitimate, legal arrangement came to an abrupt end when the owner returned from Europe and discovered two complete strangers, college kids, no less, living in her apartment. The initial tenant on the lease had moved in with her boyfriend and sublet (and price-gouged) illegally. My roommate in turn took advantage of me in the same manner. A huge argument and fight ensued in which the owner’s boyfriend and two male friends bodily threw us and our stuff out onto the lawn. The lady upstairs called the police. The tenant and my roommate who knew it was illegal got arrested for rent fraud. Initially, they arrested me too. Once it was straightened out in the police station, they let the three of us go, the tenant on the lease and my roommate to appear in court at a later date. Since I was entirely ignorant of the scheme, I was let go with an admonition to check out living arrangements thoroughly in the future. My roommate and I were given 24 hours from the time of release to remove all of our possessions from the property or be fined $75 per day, after five days, our stuff would be taken as trash.
My roommate was a social butterfly and within a few hours, had people to pick up her things and a place to bring them to. My few friends from college had neither vehicles nor the space for me to move in.
To say I was very upset was an understatement. I ended up riding my bike the 16 miles in the dark to my Amish friend’s, knocking on their door at 10:30 pm, very late for people whose work day began at 4:45 AM. I don’t remember this, but they said I was literally shaking like a leaf and Grosmommy gave me some kind of nasty tasting tonic and put me to bed in her youngest daughter’s room. (She was away visiting in Indiana to work and check out a young man as a potential husband.) The next morning, my friends did their chores a little early, fed me a quick breakfast of coffee soup, hitched up the team to the utility wagon, and four of us drove the 16 miles to town for my stuff, and them 16 miles back to their house. I was in my senior year of college which was due to start the next week. Having nowhere to stay, they gave me an unfinished room upstairs dedicated to the storage of mostly empty canning jars, sugaring vats, extra stove pipes, that sort of thing. A makeshift bed was procured, rusty box spring, large piece of plywood, a used mattress from neighbors, unused set of drawers from the barn, washed, and painted, two unused church benches for shelves, an electrical wire spool for an end table. I set up my card table and folding chair for a desk and created a closet of sorts in the corner with two flat sheets, clothesline, a tree branch, and nails. I put the bed beside the stovepipe to the cookstove below and a floor vent. I later made curtains from the required dark blue blackout material for the one window. The canning jars were put in the cellar and the bigger items in barn and woodshop. It became my home for a year and a half. I got to school and work by bicycle in warm weather, and a paid ride or Greyhound bus in cold or rainy weather. I had regular chores like everyone else, chop kindling and 25 pieces of stove wood and put them in the wood box, when present in the afternoon, milk two cows, shovel hand clean their stalls, dishes when available, same with laundry, ironing, fold laundry and put it away or in a neat pile on the chest up top the stairs if everyone was in bed.
My “method” obviously can’t be reproduced, but I do suggest you show interest in a particular Amish person of the same sex and approximate age, role in life such as a father, mother, tradesperson. The Amish are like everyone else. They come in all personality types, temperaments, morals, likes and dislikes. Make it your goal primarily to make a friend. Give that lots of time because of vastly different cultures. The outward stuff is of interest in as much as it comes into a friendship. In the meantime, express interest in the outward in the process. If you’re riding in a buggy, ask buggy and horse questions then. If you get an answer to something with which you disagree, it’s okay to express doubt, but do it agreeably. My situation was highly unusual, especially among the very conservative Swartzentrubers. Don’t expect to move in! In recent years, the “world” has tried to make inroads into the Amish, forcing upon them laws they find offensive and also, people have taken advantage of them, often by subterfuge. (Do not take the Swartzentrubers to court. You’ll lose. And if you win, for example, a township forces indoor toilets and plumbing, they will pack up and move en masse.) They will be suspicious. You’ll have to prove yourself, something that takes time and effort to overcome. Don’t get insulted. Keep trying.
Once you’ve made a friend, however, you’ll find your friend is loyal and generous.
I was expecting that you will explain why is old Christmas there. It is because of "old" or Jillian calendar. Roman Catholic Church switched to "new"/Gregorian calendar during time of pope Gregor (or something similar. Even some of Orthodox churches switched to new calendar. In Serbian Orthodox Church we celebrate it on January seven. I guess Amish missed one day due to incorrect calculations. At the time, when he calendar was introduced, there was 10 days difference, now is 13. They probably didn't update it since it went from 12 to 13.
So US people only celebrate 25th?
correction here: pope meaning the catholic pope , we dont have pope
Christ in my opinion should be celebrated from 24th to the 7th ish. Why a single or a couple of days. I would also like to add Vetereans day why one day? MERRY CHRISTMAS
Once someone leaves the Amish life are they shunned or are they welcomed back for family functions or visits ? Just curious.
They are only shunned if they've been baptized already. No baptism, no shunning, is my understanding.
@@nildagivens7320 thanks
"Old Christmas" - aka Orthodox Christmas
Sorry, Orthodox Christmas is the real, original Christmas lol 🎄
But any day that has cookies 🍪 i am happy with!
christian greek orthodox with the old calendar celebrate january 6 eve too yes thats before the pope changed the calendar in the 20s to the gregorian
Do they celebrate Santa Claus. Or more appropriately, Belsnickel, because they're Pennsylvania Dutch?
Neden Türkçe alt yazı yok hı
Catholic celebrate St Steven on December 26th, the first martyr of Christianity. January 6th is the Epiphany or the Three Kings Days
I didn't think they celebrated anything
its strange how catholic the amish really are.
Yes, although they don’t see themselves that way! Many do not think of Catholics as Christian, just as many Protestants don’t think of Catholics or Amish to be Christians! In the 1970’s I lived with Swartzentruber Amish while in college in my early 20’s. The experience prepared me well for converting three and a half decades later to what one now calls “Traditional” Catholicism. There are a few highly significant differences in doctrine, but the Amish manner of thinking and much of the outward practices prepared me so well that all I needed was to make a profession of faith in doctrinal matters. As for the lifestyle, I slid right into place as if I’d grown up Traditional Catholic. So far as I’m concerned, it’s the perfect match between my beliefs and my lifestyle. There is also a lot of similarity of Amish to Hasidic Jews. Different doctrine, but same thought process and outward manifestation.
Amish recognize Sunday as the sabbath? Saturday is sabbath. Sunday is the first day of the week. Great video.