Traditional Folk Poetry

Steven Wall and Robert Atienza, Jr. share a video of their grandfather Albert Wall bouncing his great grandson on his leg to an old Mennonite rhyming game.  This is the only record we have of this version of the horsey poem.  While it is a shared tradition between Mennonites of both Russian and American tradition, each family seems to have their own signature "version."

Thanks Robert for cleaning this up and sharing!

A Mennonite Tomte

Courtesy http://jeffsprayerconnection.blogspot.com

Ne Too’frädenheit

    According to various Mennonite historians, theologians and sociologists, Anabaptists have historically been quite ambivalent towards the concept of Christmas.  Such was not my experience growing up.  In fact, I can recall at least two sermons from childhood on keeping the “Christ” in ‘X-mas’. 

    Sociologically speaking, and coming from five generations of public school teachers, Christmas traditions and celebrations, as we know them today, probably entered into our North American lives and folkways via the public schools which were mandatory, non-Mennonite and well-meaningly assimilationist.  Further inroads were probably made by participation in and adherence to post-World War English-language, non-Anabaptist Sunday school curriculums, conference fellowships and ecumenical holiday drives (including the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)’s school packets and children’s gift box campaigns).

    At the same time, many Mennonite folk holiday traditions seem so innate to our culture and world-view that one can hardly consider a time when they would not have been followed – including the baking, the hymn sings, the family and church fellowships, the church Christmas programs and a general feeling of shared peace and fellowship for at least that one night with all of creation – especially, for us former farmers, with our non-human companions – both domesticated and wild.

God directed Moses to call forth water from the rock.

ne Wotahakjse onn ne dräje Tiet

    For centuries, Amish Americans and Russländer Mennonites have attempted to establish homes in dry hostile environments and to survive draught in part by practicing the mysterious and controversial art of water dowsing.  In Montana, we refer to this as water witching – the practice of attempting to find water by noting reactions and vibrations in a wooden or metal stick.  My grandfather, Albert Wall, used a long metal rod and spent many an afternoon trying to determine water resources on his Montana farm.  According to his stories, his grandfather, J. C. Wall, had located at least three water wells using a willow wand – though at least one of these seems to me to a rather common sense location due to surface evidence of a high water table.

    In Nuevo Ideal, Mexico, distant cousins are currently attempting to deal with the consequences of a harsh drought.  A few are moving to Canada but others are attempting to either ride out the difference between the drought year and a promising recovery, or even to identify new water resources.  Apparently, Mexican Mennonite Peter Wall has inherited the knack for dowsing – though his method is described as that of using two metal wands – one in each hand, to determine the location, quantity and depth of the water table.  Who knows – there might be something to this.  While water dowsing is certainly not considered to be scientific, neither would Mennonites sanction the practice of magic – so the practice is seemingly more complicated than doubters would have us believe. 

Our Daily Bread

Van Meegeren and his (forgery) Christ in the Temple, (c) NY Times

Aundajchtihch

Pietist Mennonite practices regarding the daily devotional are as intrinsic to the Russian Mennonite identity as is verenika – in fact, one is surprised to learn that there was a revival of Bible study and devotions in Gnadenfelde under the influence of Eduard Wüst – when had it ended?

    Personal study of the Bible and searching the Scriptures for oneself is an intrinsic aspect of the Anabaptist revolution – the first Adult Baptisms were performed only after intense study of the Scripture.  Schools were started, Bibles translated and preachers sent out to encourage other Christians and non-Christians to discover this direct personal access to Christ’s teachings for themselves.  Even more than pacifists or Adult Baptizers, the term Students of the Bible would most adequately describe the well-spring and radical vision of our Swiss, Flemish and Frisian predecessors.

    No story reveals this truth more strongly than the personal testimony of Menno Simons – the teacher whose leadership helped to preserve and re-organize the early Anabaptist church antecedents of our various conferences and denominations today.

Oostre (Easter)

The 606 a German translation

Music Image c Wiki

 

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

 

   The 606 has often been referred to as the Mennonite National Anthem -- indeed it seems to unite all of the disparate Germanic ethnic Anabaptist voices into a single melody -- literally.

    Basically, the 606, which is now available as a ring-tone btw, is the traditional "Praise God from Whom all blessings, flow," also known as the Doxology.

    In my Bruderthaler family, we did not use the Mennonite Hymnal, so the long-standing hymnal version, the 606, did not exist for us.  Instead, we sang the simple Doxology at all family gatherings as our traditional grace before meals -- Easter, Christmas, anniversaries, weddings -- they all began with Grandpa leading the Doxology.  In that the words remain the same for both the short Doxology and the more elaborate 606, the basic unity of Mennonite culture remains intact.

Ethel Wall, CCC and World War II

    The experience of Albert and Ethel Wall as CO’s was seemingly relatively pleasant – especially given that the two were a very much in love newly-wed couple who both, coincidentally shared a great love for the out-doors.

 

  While different members of his extended family, including his future brothers-in-law would have slightly different takes on the position of CO status in the war – for Albert, the matter was simply that he could not participate in the fighting.  While he would later state that he supported the war’s objectives, the Mennonite people did not accomplish their objectives through war and did not serve in the military as nonresistance was part of their traditional spiritual witness and understanding.  Others would indicate the sheer folly of attempting to kill an innocent soldier one day and then attempting to lead him to Christ the next.  War mixed with neither the Anabaptist principle of nonresistance or with the Evangelical aim of leading others to Christ. 

  Later, Ethel would confirm that neither was Bert very preachy about his pacifist stance – and that both he and she were enthusiastic to do what was required of them by the government.  “Grandpa,” as she calls him when speaking of him to her grandchildren, “just said that this is what he had to do – and understood that.”  Neither did Ethel, raised of Baptist stock, find anything overly unusual with the traditional pacifism of the Mennonites – it was part of their faith.

    Fortunately, Bert was able to take his new bride with him, more-or-less.  While Bert stayed at the CCC campground, Ethel lived nearby supporting herself by finding a job locally and would be there when Bert could get away.  As such, Ethel spent much of the war living in Downey, Idaho where she supported herself as a chambermaid for the Oxford Hotel. 

    Nor did Ethel find the task of supporting herself to be unreasonable.  As a child, she had learned to work hard on the family’s Montana ranch. 

    As for the Oxford Hotel – “It really wasn’t that bad – I didn’t have to do much with the smelly things – I would just hurry up and bundle all the used sheets and things together and could then work with the fresh smelling things – making the bed, laying out towels – part of my job was to make the room look nice and to smell fresh.” 

    “There always seemed to be someone coming or going that would need a room,” she remembers further, “and sometimes the hotel would be empty – and then I could take time to myself – read a book, sew, do some crochet…” (Ethel Wall, private conversations).

    Asked if chores were worse at the hotel or when raising four kids, she replies with a chuckle – “Now THAT is a good question.” 

Forgetting the Dead

en Denkjemol

    As Mennonites, we seem to have a complicated relationship to the dead.  Officially, we, as Brüderthaler, seem to have a belief against honoring the dead.    Interestingly, my grandmother reiterated this when I questioned whether or not she wanted to view Grandfather’s grave in the country churchyard.  “No,” she replied, “he is not there – that does nothing to remind me of him.”

    This is despite the fact that she often joins her non-Mennonite family in recognizing their duty to decorate and clean the graves of her non-Mennonite family located in the city cemetery an hour away. 

    Half-Swedish, I also belong to a Scandinavian culture that has often historically blurred the lines separating the living from the dead -- the paradoxical personal resolution of the opposing cultural beliefs that I have had no problem resolving in favor of the Swedes. 

    The theory behind the Brüderthaler tradition is that in the graveyard, we have merely buried a husk and that the essence of the person is now in Heaven with the Heavenly Father.  If we want to speak to them or miss them, the appropriate response is to not waste one’s time in an empty graveyard, but instead to live a Holy life so that we too might join them in paradise.  The bodies are of no account, merely resting in storage, carefully arranged so that they will raise facing Jerusalem (east) when they are called for at the end times Resurrection.