Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Instagram
 

Amish dolls are left faceless, possibly to emphasize that “all are alike in the eyes of God”

Alex A

 The Amish people are different from the rest of the world in many things: their language, their beliefs, the way they dress and behave.

Unlike the rest of the world, the Amish don’t use electricity. They use horse carriages for transportation and support marriages with many children. Even the toys the Amish kids play with are different, eccentric and strange: the Amish children play with dolls that have no face.

Amish dolls Photo Credit
Amish dolls Photo Credit

The dolls are usually made from old, worn-out clothes. Their looks resemble the body of a human, but there is no face drawn on them. The reason behind the dolls facelessness lies in the Amish theory that everyone is the same in the eyes of God.

The dolls are dressed similarly to the Amish kids, both male and female. There are various stories about the origins of the dolls. According to one of those stories, an Amish girl was given a rag doll as a Christmass present. The doll upset her father, who stated that only God could create people and cut the head of the doll. He replaced the head with stuffed stockings, and the girl played with the doll for years.

Amish Dolls in Reading Terminal Market – Philadelphia Photo Credit
Amish Dolls in Reading Terminal Market – Philadelphia Photo Credit

Amish dolls can be best described as plain rag-dolls. The dolls are used by both boys and girls, as Amish children don’t have many toys.

It is often seen that Amish kids wrap wooden logs in blankets and pretend they’re dolls. In the past, the dolls were stuffed with rags, but nowadays cotton and polyester are often used as stuffings. In the past, the dolls were not washed, and when they got dirty, a new layer of cloth would be wrapped around them.

Faceless Amish dolls Photo Credit
Faceless Amish dolls Photo Credit

The dolls are sewn by hand or with a traditional foot-operated sewing machine. Many of the antique Amish dolls are considered collectibles, and some have reached prices higher than $ 1,000.

Read another story from us: Valley of the Dolls: The stone dolls of Kuklica and the legend of the petrified wedding party

However, the market was destroyed by falsified dolls, made by non-Amish reproducers.