Today is the day before Ash Wednesday, which means that if you are in New Orleans or similar parts, you will be celebrating Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras implies many things, including those we won’t talk go into detail about here. But you can get a somewhat sanitized peek here from the New Orleans Times-Picayune
But if you live up in Pennsylvania Dutch country (which is of course referring to the Pennsylvania Deutche or Germans), you will be celebrating Shrove Tuesday with fastnachts. What are fastnachts you may ask? An uniformed person will tell you they are donuts. A fanatic might refer to them as “little bites of heaven fried in lard.” But mostly they are a tasty treat before things get serious with Lent.
My friend Matthew Riegel used to fry them on the steps of the Lutheran Student Center at West Virginia University, till the challenges of cold weather drove him inside to cook them in the chapel’s basement. But now that he is a bishop, he is visiting St. James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for his annual fix.
My friend novelist Holly Jacobs lives in near Lake Erie in Pennsylvania, and I really regret I’m not in her delivery area to receive a box of her triangular goodies!
