Crystal Aura Gaze

This past weekend, I celebrated fastnacht day with my family.

My aunt and uncle have been hosting fastnacht weekend since I was a kid. Fastnacht day officially falls in the middle of February, so we try to do it around that time. We use my great-grandmother’s recipe and carry on the tradition that she used to do. The fastnachts are potato based.

The dough was made on Friday night and then set to rise overnight. On Saturday, we cut the donuts and let the dough rise more on trays. Later in the day, they were fried and ready to eat! We pair them with cinnamon sugar. They are basically doughnuts, but the potato filling gives it a distinct taste, and being homemade makes them extra fresh.

Fastnacht day is a Pennsylvania Dutch holiday. It was first celebrated in the 17th and 18th century by the Pennsylvania Dutch, a group of Germans who immigrated to Pennsylvania in the 1600s/1700s.

Fastnacht day officially falls on Shrove Tuesday or “Fat Tuesday”, the day before Ash Wednesday, in which lent begins and then ends on Easter. In my family, we don’t necessarily follow lent, but we still keep the tradition of Fastnacht day alive.

There were 265 made in total this year! There were a lot of us there, we all ate quite a bit, but of course there were plenty of leftovers! Afterwards, we had a karaoke night. We also sang the schnitzelbank, another family tradition.

For me, this is a celebratory time that marks the point in which winter is more than halfway over and warmer days are coming soon. For our ancestors, it was a day to splurge and eat a lot of sweets, in preparation of six weeks of fasting or restricting and pushing spiritual disciplines until Easter.

Happy fastnacht day!