#Pensylvania Dutch

[lailoken]

Hello! I recently came across your post about pennsylvania dutch folk magic being a closed practice. I obviously agree with this but I was hoping you could help me in a bit of a personal journey if you have the knowledge or know where to find it.

My family, maternally, comes from germany and immigrated to the pennsylvania dutch area. I was wondering it you knew if this blood connection to the culture would be enough to warrant looking into the culture's traditions? I spent much of my life talking to my great grandma from PA and spend as much time as possible talking to my grandma and great-aunt (her daughters) and while we discuss their culture, i believe much of our knowledge died with my great grandmother.

If you have any thoughts or advice I would love to hear them. Thank you very much 💕🌿✨

Hello there. 🌱

In all honesty, I don't feel like I'm the best authority on this. But, to me, if you have Pensylvania Dutch ancestors in living memory—especially if at least some of their traditions have been passed down to you—then it doesn't seem unreasonable to explore that some, so long as it's done steadily and respectfully. For myself, I have never felt like I was really being called to fully "embody" my Penylvania Dutch heritage, and I would never try and call myself a Braucher or anything like that, but the traditions that I did inherit are very dear to me.

If you're wanting to explore Pennsylvania Dutch traditions in a serious way, your best bet is probably seeking someone who is actually part of that tradition, and doing your best for prove yourself worthy of learning some from them. Of course, there's no guarantee that someone would be willing to share with a person from outside of their direct community.

Best of luck moving forward!

[kissimirrit]

one thing i love learning from people who speak yiddish or have family that speak yiddish is that yiddish has so many words in common or are similar to pennsylvania dutch, because they both derived from the central rhines valley in the german palatines before modern german evolved to what it is today. so there��s quite a bit a mutability!!

i love sharing the pensylvania dutch equivalent of yiddish words if/when i remember them. xD i wonder if there’s a yiddish equivalent of ladvarik (apple butter) or if that one is just uniquely ours haha.

[mayalaen]

11:11

I was tagged by @intotheruins. Thank you <3

1. Can you speak more than one language, or are you learning a new language? I can kinda fake my way through some German just because my family uses a lot of words and phrases. We also tend to use the sentence structure of Pensylvania Dutch. I know quite a bit of Latin because of my medical background and because I love languages, but English is my only real language, and until my life chills out a bit, it will continue to be my only language.

2. Books, fanfiction, or both, and why? Both. Books are something I have to work at reading because I have to introduce myself to new characters and learn/care about them. It’s tiresome, especially when I’m busy and stressed, so fanfic most of the time just because it’s usually well-written (better than a lot of professionally published books) and I don’t have to work at caring about characters I’ve never known before. 3. Have you done a lot of traveling? Nope. I don’t like vacations or traveling. I’ve only been to a few states in the US and I wandered down into Mexico for about a half hour when I was a teenager.

4. If you’ve seen more than one version, do you have a favorite Sherlock? (The character himself, like my fav is Benedict Cumberbatch’s version) Benedict Cumberbatch. The darker, the better. Not that I don’t like RDJ, but he’s too cute and quirky for me to really get into seeing him as Sherlock. I love the cute/flirty/quirky thing, and I want to see it in so many other situations, but not Sherlock :)

5. Do you ever imitate one of your favorite characters when you’re having a hard time expressing yourself? No. I do act, but not as a character from TVs, books, or movies. I put on metaphorical masks and play another person, which helps me immensely with my anxiety and social issues. Not many people know the real me.

6. Have you seen the new Wonder Woman and what did you think of it? Haven’t seen it. I don’t go to the theater to see movies (haven’t since about 2007). I’m not really that interested in seeing Wonder Woman either.

7. Any movies coming out this year or next year that you’re really excited about? Superhero movies usually excite me, but I’m not super stoked about any in particular. I’m not huge into movies. It’s more of a social thing for me, and I enjoy it if I’m watching with someone.

8. Who are some of your favorite actors/actresses? James Spader, Gillian Anderson, Morgan Freeman, Misha Collins, and so many more. I can’t even think of them all!

9. A movie you’ve watched more than ten times? Wow, TEN?! I rarely watch a movie more than once, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen All Over the Guy ten times. Lifeforce is my favorite movie, but I’m not even sure if I’ve seen more than ten times.

10. Craziest thing you’ve ever done? I’m not one of those people who does risky things, so I’m gonna say the craziest thing I’ve done is get drunk with my family and shove my uncle’s wife up onto a giant statue of an elephant outside a bar late on a Saturday night after a concert. We took pictures of her riding the elephant. Yeah, I’m so wild and crazy :D

11. Do you have a favorite season, or do you like them all? Winter, but I live in the desert, so my winter is probably everybody else’s summer. I hate snow, but it never snows here. It’s just cool and crisp and kinda rainy in the winter here.

I’m way too tired to come up with my own questions, so I’m going to use Dale’s questions and tag some people, including Dale, because he wanted to answer his own questions, and I wanna know his answers :D

Tagging (with no obligation to play): @intotheruins @helvonasche @chiisana-sukima @divinestrengthbeautifulgoddess @theriverscribe @hullosweetpea @notastupidape @thewolvesring @trekchik and anyone else who wants to play!

[houseofspectres]

Pickled eggs and beets! 

[minorkeepsakes]

[agents-of-frickle-frackle]

I’ll outen the lights after youse guys redd up the living room

an ancient pennsylvania dutch saying