Mardi Gras and Fastnachts in February

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Today is 'Mardi Gras', the day before Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of the 40 days of Lent. In the past few years, I have been exposed to a number of new traditions related to this Festival. The first of these is the tradition of the 'Fastnacht.' 'Fastnacht' translated into English strictly speaking is 'Fast Night', but 'Night' in this context means 'Eve'. The word itself translates as the 'Eve before the Fast' but is the name given to the traditional doughnuts made by Pennsylvania Germans for Shrove Tuesday.

The actual name of the Feast Day in German is Fasnachttag, or 'Eve of the Day of Fasting'. It is said that the origin of the tradition of making doughnuts on Shrove Tuesday was to use all the lard before Lent with its rather stringent dietary restrictions.


Fastnachts are NOT ordinary doughnuts and no one should mistake 'fast' for 'fast food'. They are made by hand and contain potatoes as well as flour. It is the addition of the potatoes that makes them unique.

Here is a very traditional recipe for Fastnachts, using yeast:

2 cups scalded milk
1/2 cup lard
1 cup mashed potatoes
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten well
1 packet of yeast
7 cups flour

Scald milk, adding mashed potatoes, sugar, salt and lard. (If you do not like lard, you can substitute melted butter but lard would be the MOST traditional ingredient.) Cool mixture until it is lukewarm. Add beaten eggs, then add yeast and sufficient flour to make a soft dough. Knead well and place in a greased bowl. Cover with a clean cloth and allow dough to rise for about 1 1/2 hours. Roll dough to 1/4 thickness, then place it on a cloth. Allow the dough to rise again until it has doubled in size. Use a cutter or knife to shape into round doughnuts or triangles. Fry in hot fat.

For those who do not have the patience to wait for bread to rise as well as those who are not very keen on lard as an ingredient, here is a fairly traditional contemporary Fastnacht Recipe:


2 1/2 cups hot mashed potatoes
1 cup Milk
3 beaten eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
5 cups flour.

Combine all ingredients except for the flour thoroughly, then add the flour slowly. When thoroughly mixed, divide the dough into two parts. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness and cut with a doughnut cutter, a biscuit cutter or a glass. You can use a knife to cut the dough into triangles as well. Deep fry in oil or hot fat.

Serve with sugar or molasses.

Note from Freyashawk: When I have had Fastnachts, I have made my own mixture of confectioner's sugar, cinnamon, clove and cardamon to dust the surface of the Fastnacht. I usually heat the Fastnacht slightly before dusting the surface with the spiced sugar. The first time I had a Fastnacht, I was not impressed, as I thought of it as a rather heavy doughnut somewhat lacking in sweetness. It was when I had my second Fastnacht that I began to appreciate the unique flavour and texture.
They now have become a part of my own tradition for the season.

I have been told that there is another Pennsylvania Dutch tradition with respect to Fastnachts. The person who awakens last on Shrove Tuesday is called the 'Fastnacht' and there is some derision attached to this appellation.

'Fastnacht' Day and Mardi Gras

As the Asian Lunar New Year continues in its first week, Christians celebrate the last day of Shrovetide before Lent. In French New Orleans, it is known affectionately as 'Mardi Gras' or 'Fat Tuesday'. In Pennsylvania German households, it is known as 'Fastnacht Day'. 'Fastnacht' is German for 'Fast Night', a reference to Shrove Tuesday, the eve of the Lenten Fast. It has become the name for the traditional potato yeast doughnuts that are fried and eaten on this day, however. Some people declare that Fastnachts were not intended to have holes in the centre like traditional doughnuts but people make them both ways. In fact, one of the great cottage industries of Pennsylvania is the 'Fastnacht' industry, wherein church and other community groups make and sell Fastnacht doughnuts once a year.

One of the reasons doughnuts became a symbol of Shrove Tuesday in German-American households was a prohibition against using cooking oils during Lent. Shrove Tuesday thus would be the last day on which foods would be fried until Easter.

For those who crave a little fried delight, here is a traditional recipe for Fastnacht doughnuts:

1 cup milk
1 cup mashed potatoes
2/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 packet dried yeast
1/4 cup warm water
6 cups flour

Mix mashed potatoes, sugar, salt and butter in a large bowl, adding eggs until well mixed. Boil milk then let it cool. Meanwhile, dissolve yeast in warm water and add it to the batter. Add the milk slowly to the batter, mixing thoroughly until the dough has an elastic quality. Cover the dough and let it rise for 45 minutes or until it doubles in size.

Work with the dough until it meets with your satisfaction (no bubbles and so on), then roll it out and either cut squares or round shapes, then fry in fat. Traditionally, German households probably used lard, but most people use vegetable fat now.

In the past, the fastnachts were served with honey. Most people now serve them with cinnamon and powdered sugar.

Fastnacht Day is a rather obscure tradition, but Mardi Gras is better known.

Mardi Gras is a French Carnival tradition for Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent. Probably the Carnivals originally were celebrated as a festival at the end of Winter, to induce the sun to return to Northern lands.

In New Orleans, parades and rather extravagant celebrations are famed throughout the world. 'Floats' are organised by private clubs called 'krewes' and colourful necklaces of beads as well as 'doubloons' in the form of counterfeit coins are thrown to people on the street. So famous has this tradition become that any visitor to the French Quarter at any time of the year probably will be given strings of coloured beads, even if it is not Mardi Gras at all.

After the devastation of hurricane Katrina, Mardi Gras in New Orleans has been much less extravagant but people hope that the traditions will endure and regain their universal appeal.

Another custom of Mardi Gras is the 'King Cake'. This is a braided cake in the form of a circle with a hole in the centre. Covered with multi-coloured frosting and glittering sugar, it is rather like the Twelfth Night cake, as a 'baby' is hidden inside it. Whoever finds the 'baby' becomes the King of Mardi Gras, rather like the Epiphany 'King of the Bean'. The babies are made of plastic now but originally were made of sugar.

In Northern Europe, Shrovetide ends with 'Pancake Day' on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. In one province in Canada, charms are inserted in the pancakes, rather like the silver charms placed in Christmas puddings in England at Christmas. The charms are symbols of different fortunes such as wealth, marriage and good fortune.
(Charms include a thimble, a coin, a horseshoe, a wishbone, a wedding bell and a Bachelor's Button.)

The forty days of Lent originally were derived from the ancient mourning period for Osiris or Adonis. After this mourning period, the god would rise or return from the Underworld. In Christianity, the 40 days of Lent commemorate the 40 days that Christ spent alone in the desert before he commenced his ordeal. Lent ends with Holy Week and it is on Good Friday that Christ was crucified. On Easter Sunday, he rose from the dead, emerging from the cave in which his body had been placed. This mirrors the ancient belief in a cave as the entrance to the Underworld.