Information AboutRumspringa |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT RUMSPRINGA | |
| christianity in pennsylvania | |
| rites of passage | |
| amish | |
| religion in lancaster, pennsylvania | |
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This conception contains some measure of scholars' folklore. Among the Amish (and the term is not universal to Amish culture), "rumspringa" simply refers to adolescence, when a certain amount of misbehavior is unsurprising, and is not so severely condemned (for instance, by "Meidung," or shunning) as it would be in the case of an adult who had made a permanent and public commitment to the faith. In a narrow sense, the young are not bound by the Ordnung, because they have not taken adult membership in the church, but they remain under the strict authority of parents who are so bound, and there is no period at which it can be said that Amish adolescents are "released" from these rules. As among the non-Amish, there is variation among communities and individual families as to the best response to adolescent misbehavior. In some cases, patience and forbearance prevail, and in others, vigorous discipline. Far from an open separation from parental ways, the misbehavior of young people during the "rumspringa" is usually furtive, though often collective (this is especially true in smaller and more isolated populations; the larger communities are discussed below). Typically, groups of Amish adolescents will meet in town and change into "English" clothing, and share tobacco, alcohol and marijuana; girls may put on jewelry and cosmetics. They may or may not mingle with non-Amish in these excursions. The age is marked normatively in some Amish communities by allowing the young man to purchase a small "courting buggy," or -- in some communities -- by painting the yard-gate blue (traditionally meaning "daughter of marriageable age living here"). There is some opinion that adolescent rebellion tends to be more radical, more institutionalized (and therefore in a sense more accepted) in the more restrictive communities. As evidenced by the sources below, popular culture and the media have cultivated the idea that the Amish deliberately countenance adolescent rebellion. Perhaps the belief validates a cherished notion of Amish wisdom, but tolerance for deviation from norms is not counted a virtue among the Amish. In interviews, Amish have shown themselves to be aware of these misconceptions and are by turns bewildered and amused. Some Amish youth do indeed separate themselves from the community, even going to live among the "English", or non-Amish North America ns, experiencing modern technology and perhaps even experimenting with sex, drugs, and alcohol. Their behavior during this time represents no necessary bar to returning for adult baptism into the Amish church. Most of them do not wander far from their family's homes during this time, and large numbers ultimately choose to join the church. However this proportion would vary from community to community, and within a community between more acculturated and less acculturated Amish. Swartzentruber Amish have for example a higher retention rate than the New Order Amish within the Holmes County, Ohio community. This figure was significantly lower as recently as the 1950s , and among the first colonial Amish families it is said that there was not one family on record where all the children in the same family were all baptized into the Amish church. It is very common for those individuals who choose not be baptized into the church to be Shunned by their community and even by their own families. The nature of the rumspringa period differs from individual to individual and from community to community. In large Amish communities like Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Holmes County, Ohio, and Elkhart-Lagrange, Indiana, the Amish are numerous enough that there exists an Amish youth subculture. During the rumspringa period, the Amish youth in these large communities will join one of various groups ranging from the most rebellious to the least. These groups are not divided across traditional Amish church district boundaries. In many smaller communities, Amish youth may have a much more restricted rumspringa period due to the smaller size of the communities. Likewise, they may be less likely to partake in strong rebellious behaviour since the anonymity offered in the larger communities is absent. ETYMOLOGY The word, literally meaning "running around" in Pennsylvania German , is a contraction of ''rum'', an adverb meaning "around" (also used as a Separable Prefix as in the case of ''rumschpringe''), and the verb ''schpringe'', meaning "to run" or "to skip." The word ''rumschpringe'' is closely related to the standard German word ''herumspringen'', although the ''rum'' has more of the meaning of "around" than "about". Omitting the ''he'' syllable leaving only the ''rum'' is widely accepted in colloquial German and does not change the meaning of the prefix. The modern German word ''springen'' means "to jump" and bears no meaning in the form of "to run" anymore. In Swiss German as in some German dialects, ''springe'' however does - besides meaning "to jump" - also mean "to run". In modern German "to skip" would rather be translated with the verb ''hüpfen''. The German noun ''Herumspringen'' (literally "to jump around") correlates with the Pennsylvanian German word ''rumschpringe'', describing a state of change or unrest, but bears no correlation to the Amish custom of ''rumschpringe''. RECENT POPULAR EXPOSURE ''Rumspringa'' is the subject of the film documentary '' Devil's Playground '', as well as a UPN Reality Television series '' Amish In The City ''. The practice has also been the subject of plotlines on the TV shows '' ER '', Las Vegas , '' Strong Medicine '' and '' Judging Amy '', as well as being a part of the '' Abram's Daughters '' series of novels from Beverly Lewis . A 2002 '' Oprah '' episode had as its subject rumspringa and ''The Devil's Playground''. The Dutch band The Nits had a song named ''Rumspringa'' on their 2003 album entitled 1974 . Rumspringa is also the name of a dance move used by fans of the popular jam-band The Disco Biscuits ; described as "Grabbing your crotch with your left hand, right hand in the air, pivot with left foot, ten circles, then stop and switch hands and pivot." Rumspringa is also the title of a song off the Scotch Greens second album, Professional, with its lyrics regarding the rite of passage from the perspective of an Amish teen who does not desire to return to the Amish community. EXTERNAL LINKS
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