The Amish Family Traditions And Furniture Making

It is perhaps the old fashioned family traditions of the Amish that are responsible for the traditional way of making Amish furniture. If the Amish live in the old fashioned way, they also work the same way and this is why we have Amish handcrafted furniture made the same way now that it was decades ago as well.

The Amish social life centers about the family, and the community itself pivots on the basis of the close knit families that are generally the norm in these societies. Families are typically large, with many children, and older generations living side by side with youngsters.

The family trade is passed on from father to son to grandson. As and when able to, young men are introduced to their father’s trade so that one could see father and son working side by side in the fields or in a work shop that could be in the process of turning out the much prized Amish made furniture. Much of the education provided to the child in an Amish family is provided within the family, by the members of the family or community.

The extended families that are a norm for the Amish would not just live together and eat and pray together, they would also work together, so that furniture making traditions are literally passed on from one to the next generation.

As the Amish live their lives by the principles of simplicity, utility and excellence so also do they create furniture based on the very same principles that makes Amish furniture world renowned. Though traditionally farming communities, the Amish also engage in trades such as furniture making. However as they live their lives in simplicity and with a minimum of modernization, so also they have furniture making traditions that have remained unchanged for ages.

This is why Amish furniture is hand crafted; using little or no mechanization. Made the old fashioned way, there is painstaking attention to the details in every piece, so that each is beautifully made and built to last. Using only solid wood the Amish made furniture uses very distinctive joinery that imparts it the qualities of durability and strength. The designs reflect simple elegance rather than ornate designs for the most part and the methods used are the same that were used by their early American ancestor furniture makers.

Among the items of Amish furniture, the dining room table has pride of place. It is this item of furniture that many newlyweds would first acquire. It is also this item of furniture around which the home and indeed the family is built since it is at the dining table that the entire family will congregate daily to break bread together.  In the absence of mod cons and entertainment that others take for granted, it is the Amish tradition of taking meals together that form the focal point of social interaction. Meal times are times that promote family bonding.

Many modern people also choose Amish tables perhaps in the hope that meal times would be as much a time for bonding as they are for the Amish?