Jul 28, 2009, 10:13 GMT
Berlin, Ohio - Alma Hershberger lifts the lid of an antiquated-looking cooking pot and smiles broadly. 'Dinner is ready. Sit down, please,' she tells her guests in the simply furnished farmhouse. Two of her nieces serve. The farmhouse lacks gas and electricity, television and the internet.
Hershberger, 59, is Amish, a Protestant sect that separated from the Mennonites in the 17th century. She lives near Berlin in the US state of Ohio's Holmes County, home to the world's largest Amish community. Hershberger works on the farm, cooks for visitors and sells homemade jam during the day. In the evening she rides home in a horse-drawn buggy.
About 180,000 Amish live in the United States and Canada, some 36,000 of them in Ohio. Their lifestyle is hardly different from that of their ancestors, who came mainly from Germany and Switzerland, beginning in 1720. The Amish reject almost all modern conveniences. This makes them an attraction for tourists, who regularly visit their villages.
The Amish plough their fields with horsepower - quite literally - wear old-fashioned, uniform clothing and eschew all adornments, sartorial or otherwise, that could smack of vanity. They are devoutly religious, live strictly according to the Bible and travel almost exclusively in their black buggies.
'Life was slow and relaxed,' recalls Paul Coblentz, 63, who grew up in an Amish community. 'We were very active in sports and often sat together in the meadow and sang while my brother played harmonica.' The children helped out with the work in the fields, he says, and everyone was too exhausted in the evening to miss television, radio or the cinema.
But after he left the community, Coblentz admits, he bought himself a car as soon as possible. 'In many respects it was a new kind of freedom and it did me good. All of a sudden I had a chance to experience new things and interpretations of the Holy Scripture. I found that very enriching,' he says.
Since the Amish frown on complaining, they do not grumble about the impoliteness of some tourists, who arrive by the bus-load to gawk at their unusual lifestyle. There are those who take photos of them without asking (photos are sometimes prohibited for religious reasons) and make fun of their clothing and headdress - typically bonnets for the women and wide-brimmed black hats for the men.
'Sometimes they treat people here like animals in a zoo, but the Amish have got used to it and benefit from the guests,' remarks JoAnn Hershberger, who was brought up Amish and owns the farm where Alma Hershberger works.
JoAnn also employs a girl from the Old Order Amish, the most conservative Amish group, who is wearing a traditional long-sleeved, ankle-length dress even in midsummer. 'These girls aren't envious or think, 'How I'd like to wear a short-sleeved T-shirt!' Rather, they think, 'If you knew what I know, you'd be Amish, too,'' JoAnn says.
The Amish believe that after death, Heaven is attained by those who have led a strict, religious life. Few leave the Church, JoAnn says, 'perhaps because the Amish are actually quite happy to learn little of the rest of the world and live in their own universe.'
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