Tagged: fastnacht

Finished Doughnuts or Fastnachts Detail 2

Doughnuts or Fastnachts?

In March of 2017, I wrote an article about Fastnachts, those holeless, wholesome doughnuts that appear every year in parts of Pennsylvania on Shrove Tuesday to usher in the Lenten season. So as not...

Fastnachts Store Bought 0

Shrove Tuesday, Fastnacht Day

Although this day was celebrated last week, the following article will give some insight into this very Pennsylvania Deitsch tradition. This article appeared in the March, 1984 Beech Grove newsletter. Literally translated from the German,...

John & Emma "Hagenbuch" Reichard Farm 1895 Detail 1

Old Time Christmas in a Country Home

This story was shared in the December, 1983 issue of the “Beech Grove.” It first appeared in the “Lancaster County Guardian” in January, 1871 and was included with other folk culture stories by Alfred...

Hog Butchering 1919 0

Butchering Day Memories from the Farm, Part 1

Last Tuesday was Fastnacht Day here in our part of Pennsylvania. In our Montour County household we called it Doughnut Day. It wasn’t until I moved to York County thirty years ago that I...