In good Pennsylvania Dutch fashion, my mom made doughnuts today. A tradition rooted in my Pennsylvania Dutch heritage. For those of you not familiar with this tradition, fasnacht's day is observed the day before Ash Wednesday marking the beginning of Lent. This day goes by many monikers. New Orleans has Mardi Gras and today is Fat Tuesday. While living in Germany, we celebrated Fasching and Karneval and there are several other names as well.
Unlike many other pre-lent celebrations, Fasnachts day is limited to a single day and literally means "eve of the fast". The potato based doughnuts that were made are also known as fasnachts. The fasnachts were made to use up fat, lard, and sugars before the Lent fasting period when no sweets were eaten.
My dad is from a Mennonite family. I remember as a small child watching my grandmother make fasnachts. By the time she finished, her whole large kitchen table was covered with doughnuts. Then we all ate as many fasnachts as we could hold. As a child it was a day that I looked forward to only second to Christmas.
My mother has carried on this tradition. Yeah! I ate three, today!
8 comments:
Hurrah to cooking traditions! These doughnuts look positively drool worthy!
i'm unfamiliar with this tradition, but it's automatically one of my favorites!!
yay for Mennonite traditions - always the best comfort food. This year for part of Thanksgiving dessert I made whoopie pies and decided I might have to make it a yearly thing.
What a wonderful tradition! I'm so glad you shared this one with us. Sounds like a tradition worth adopting. Those doughnuts look absolutely amazing--lots of kudos to your Mom!
I would love to order a few dozen of those delicious looking doughnuts!
My great-grandmother, who came from Germany as a girl, used to make those. Thank you for the nice memory!!
I love family cooking traditions. Lucky you- these look soooo good!
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