![\"tombstones\"](\"http:\/\/groups.etown.edu\/files\/2013\/06\/tombstones-300x166.jpg\")
Although funeral practices vary across Amish settlements, all reflect the core Amish values of simplicity, humility, and mutual aid, as family and friends yield to eternal verities.<\/p>\nAlthough funeral practices vary across Amish settlements, all reflect the core Amish values of simplicity, humility, and mutual aid, as family and friends yield to eternal verities.<\/p>\n
The community springs into action at the word of a death. Family and friends assume farm, business, and household chores, freeing the immediate family. Funeral plans involve food preparation, seating arrangements, and accommodations for a large number of horses and carriages.<\/p>\n
Well-established funeral rituals relieve the family of difficult funeral choices. In some settlements, a non-Amish undertaker moves the body to a funeral home for embalming. Within a day, the body, without cosmetic improvements, returns to the home in a simple, hardwood coffin. Family members of the same sex dress the body in white. Deceased women may wear the white cape and apron worn at their wedding.<\/p>\n
Friends and relatives visit the family and view the body in a room on the first floor of the home for two days prior to the funeral. Meanwhile, community members dig the grave by hand in a nearby family cemetery. Several hundred guests attend the funeral, which is held in a barn, a shop, or the family\u2019s home. During the simple hour-and-a-half service, ministers read hymns and scriptures, offer prayers, and preach a sermon.<\/p>\n
The hearse, a large, black carriage pulled by horses, leads a long procession of other carriages to the burial ground. A brief viewing and graveside service mark the return of dust to dust. Pallbearers lower the coffin and shovel soil into the grave as the bishop reads a hymn. Small, equal-sized tombstones indicate the place of the deceased in the community of equality. Close friends and family members then return to the home for a meal.<\/p>\n
Although funeral practices vary across Amish settlements, all reflect the core Amish values of simplicity, humility, …<\/p>\n