Saturday, April 26, 2014

W ~ Weddings

An Amish wedding is an all day affair, services begin at 9:00, and are basically  like any church service except a few different songs are sung, though still in the same slow fashion. Sermons are just as long, but they focus on weddings in the Bible, and plenty of advice thrown in about love and submission. At 12:00 the couple gets married after making the vows I shared yesterday.

After they are married there is a long prayer and the final wedding song is sung.



Then it's time to head to the reception where loads of food is served, and the afternoon is spent singing. (Contrary to popular belief, most Amish weddings do not serve celery.)

Evening arrives and it's time to eat the wedding supper, but first the youth pairs up where the boys choose which girl they want to sit with. After everyone has been paired up and they found their place to sit, it is time to sing again, this time regular songs, found in the Leidersammlung, and sung to the tunes of English hymns. After two hours of singing, the wedding supper is served. Around 10:00 everything is over and people start going home.

12 comments:

  1. Wow! All day long! In the pictures taken of us at our daughter's weddings, which were only an hour long, and started at 11:00, we all look exhausted, including my dad, who was the one who performed the ceremonies.

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    1. It was a very long day, and exhausting for the ones directly involved. We had to get up around four on our wedding day in order to get everything taken care of that needed to be done before we headed to church.

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  2. Oh my! A long day indeed.
    Some of the things that set my British thoughts racing are the erroneous beliefs of non-Amish Americans seem to hold about Amish traditions. CELERY???!!! What's that about?

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    1. Lancaster does serve celery at weddings, but other communities don't. (And Lancaster only makes up a fraction of the more than 250 Amish communities.) The reason so many people believe all Amish do this is thanks in part to the many Amish fiction books.

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    2. Mary Ann, correct me if I'm wrong (always a possibility!), but the deal with the celery is that the Amish aren't supposed to do anything "just for show" so flowers on the tables are frowned upon. Celery has pretty green leaves, but is also useful - when was the last time you ate the centerpiece at dinner?

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    3. The Lancaster weddings I attended did not use celery as centerpieces. It is served steaming hot and creamed. And also raw celery sticks that are eaten. (Again this is a Lancaster Amish tradition. Other communities don't serve the stuff.)

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  3. Again, soooo interesting !!! The celery ...... hahahaha .... yes, it's ALWAYS in my books !!! This was sooo FUN !!! Gosh, I'm exhausted just reading about the full day, and, this doesn't even involve the photo sessions ..... very fond memories I'm sure ... You are a delight Mary Ann, my AMISH teacher you are :):)
    Have a wonderful, blessed SPRING day xo

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    1. Weddings are a lot of fun for the youth. For those already married it's a lot of work cooking, clean up etc. Only one of my brothers got married before we left the Amish so most weddings I attended were really fun, trying to cook with a baby on my hip at his wedding was much less fun!

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  4. I have enjoyed so much these posts. And of course you're correct in the the point of the books always pointing out the celery at weddings. I thought it was an Amish tradition. How interesting to know it's mainly Lancaster County.
    Blessings,
    Betsy

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    1. Lancaster Amish are different in so many ways from other Amish. I don't know why they even serve celery at their weddings, judging from the amount that was eaten and the comments made at the table I was sitting at even they don't enjoy it.

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  5. Was there a purpose to the boys and girls pairing off? Was it supposed to signify who they were going to marry someday? I have really been enjoying your posts - so much to learn.

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  6. I enjoyed reading this! I am planning my daughter's wedding in May. Her event is set for three hours! I cannot imagine an entire day. I am really enjoying your blog. =)

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.