An adult Mennonite spends a proportionally high amount of their time invested in labour. From Monday to Saturday, Mom and Dad are working the majority of the days sun light so when Sunday finally arrives it is time to kick off the shoes. This is ritu...
To best illustrate how Mennonites deal with their problems, we'll visit a recent news article. (Read the full article here) Lets begin by meeting the father: David Knelsen. Mister Knelsen has a son: Johan. According to dad, Johan did something wrong....
This post is a day late because I was busy watching Vancouver lose the Stanley Cup. I digress. Milking twice a day means there are quiet a few large cans of milk making their way to and from the road in 24hr. It's a pain to carry them and really inef...
Today I'm going to discuss a very particular kind of slang. The ridiculous type. Most languages have words that start out on the fringe but eventually make their way into the common lexicon. For example: cool. Yo dude, that's cool man. However, ther...
Last weeks blog post was a bit of a cop out so I'll put in more of an effort and share a life experience I kept buried inside for many years. Why are Mennonite kids so afraid? The root of the problem is that a Mennonite child doesn't fully grasp the ...
North American kids own the staple yellow bus. But outside the western world, children have alternative methods of getting to school. A Mennonite child's journey basically boils down to 3 options: 1. Walking Mennonite communities are broken down into...
I've been reading a great book about the history of the Mennonites and have decided to create a new feature I'm calling ... Mennonite History. It's creative, I know. In the late 1800's when the Mennonites where living in Russia, land was beginning to...
When Mennonites are not busy working all day, there is one activity they'll always make time for: Zoat Knacken Zoat Knacken is another Plautdietsch phrase which literally translates to cracking sunflower seeds. A better translation would be cracking ...
Visiting my mother this weekend, I was able to enjoy one of my favourite Mennonite meals: The Mennonite Fasbah. To set it up, Mennonites are very routine and so are their meals. Din-din usually consists of a meat from either of the 3 major groups — p...
No, not really but Mennonites do celebrate Easter. Unfortunately, it isn't as unique or exciting as Christmas, but it does have a few points of interest. Morning A Mennonite Easter begins by the children searching for their bag of treats outside. A b...
So if you read last weeks post, this one is awfully predictive: what does the Mennonite woman look like? It's all in the Dress This one piece of clothing has a specific style and is in fact the best way to differentiate between an Amish and Menno wo...
In this two part series I will be detailing what the average Mennonite looks like. In true Menno style, I shall being with the gentlemen. The clothes. The most prominent item in the attire is the overalls. These homemade beauties are usually a tight ...
This post isn't so much about life as a child in a Mennonite society but rather the fears when transferring out. Having lived in a life of certain set social rules, operating in a whole new batch can be scary. One of the first areas that a Mennonite ...
Mennonite children are forever indebted to their parents and the youth grows up with a minimal amounts of nice things. However, once they reach their teenage years the seniority starts paying off and they can claim the Spitzerin room all for themselv...
Mennonites have an image of being extremely practical no nonsense people. It is a point of pride they have worked hard to cultivate. There is however one item in every Mennonite home that serves no functional purpose and is meant for purely decorativ...