Mardi Gras to you . . .

. . . but today is Fastnacht to me. That's "Fast Night," the German celebration on the day before Lent begins. My maternal great-grandparents emigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the 19th Century and this was one of the few rituals that our family maintained from that side of our heritage. Like Mardi Gras, it is a day for costumes, eating and partying.

On this day my mother always made Fastnacht keuchles, a raised and deep-fried "donut" that was square in shape and pressed together in the center, rather than having a hole in the middle. Then we dusted them in cinnamon and sugar or powdered sugar. Using up lard, butter and sugar before the long period of religious fasting began was the reason for making sweet treats.

The NYTimes has a story about a small community still celebrating this festival. One of the townspeople, pictured in the article, was wearing a mask that reminded me of one I have. I will bring it out today in memory of those long-gone childhood days spent in the kitchen with my mom. 

Comments

[Kris P]

Enjoy your celebration, Linda! In addition to hunting down your mask, I hope you make yourself some of those sweet treats too!

[Susie at pbmGarden]

Nice memories Linda!

[danger garden]

And here I thought you just managed to cut two perfect eye holes from a fall leaf! Love that mask.

[Beth@PlantPostings]

I hope you had a pleasant celebration. I have mostly German heritage, too, but I don't remember hearing about Fastnacht. The keuchles sound delicious.