Rumspringa
Rumspringa ("running around") is a traditional rite of passage in the Amish religion. It is a period of months or years when adolescents are released from the rules of the church. Beginning at age sixteen, they are allowed to live among "the English" (non-Amish Americans) and experience outsiders' way of life.
The tradition is that no matter what they do in this time, they are welcome to come back to be baptized in the Amish church, but once they do so, they are bound to its rules for life.
Most Amish teenagers do not wander far from their families homes during their rumspringa, and most (estimated at 85 to 90 percent) choose to join the church at the end of the period.
The custom is part of the Amish belief that only informed adults can "accept Christ" and be baptized. (The Amish also believe that the unbaptized cannot enter Heaven.)
The Pennsylvania German word rumspringa (also spelled rumschpringe) comes from the verb schpringe, meaning "to run" or "to skip," while rum is an adverb meaning "about" that is also used as a separable prefix, as in the case of rumschpringe.
Recent popular exposure
Rumspringa is the subject of the film documentary Devil's Playground and UPN reality television series Amish in the City. The practice has also been the subject of plotlines on the TV shows ER and Judging Amy, as well as part of the Abram's Daughters series of novels from
