Faschnacht

Not only is it “Super Tuesday” today, the day of a bazillion presidential primaries, it is also Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras or, literally translated, Fat Tuesday. A little investigation required here…

(This is stuff probably everyone but me knows already. I don’t know why things float around in the outer reaches of my sphere of knowledge without my ever swimming out to look more closely at them, but that’s what happened to this little bit of Lenten knowledge.)

So… Shrove Tuesday. The word ‘shrove’ is past tense for the verb ‘shrive,’ which means to obtain absolution for one’s sins through confession and penance. It is the last day before Lent.

And while the French used this day to party in their Mardi Gras festivals (or is that only in New Orleans?) the Pennsylvania Dutch, in their typically frugal way, spent the day using up their supply of rich perishables that wouldn’t be acceptable to eat during Lent, but couldn’t possibly be wasted either – eggs, milk, sugar and fat. And so we have the tradition of making donuts, or faschnachts, on what is also called Faschnacht Day.

(While I am being sensitive to spelling here, a quick check on the internet reveals that the spelling varies widely because of the lack of written language – so I just picked an option. While discovering this, I also found that the donuts are not necessarily made in the traditional donut shape but, according to some, should be either square – for the four gospels in the Bible – or triangular – for the Trinity. Goodness, the detail! No wonder I never had all this straight in my head!)

Anyway, various people in my family have made donuts for Faschnacht Day off and on for years but somehow I always miss out on it. I have a recipe for fashnachts but only tried it once – and I don’t really remember how it turned out.

So – and here is the point of all this investigation – today Mark and I are going to try it. Wish us luck.



Post Script
With all the Vatican revisions I am always surprised to hear that people still ‘give up’ things for Lent – chocolate, alcohol etc. I had a childhood friend who tried to give up her brother for Lent. Anyway, whatever your choice – may the Lenten season bring you what you need.