Celebrate before Lent: Fastnacht – regardless of weather

We’ll celebrate the night before Ash Wednesday, on Tuesday, 2/17 beginning at 6:30 pm.  Fastnacht in German (“Mardi Gras” in French) is a tradition in Lutheran congregations of eating pancakes and doughnuts for dinner!  Originally, it was the night that people used up their extra “fat” (hence Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday) so that they could be prepared to fast (hence fast night/Fastnacht) during Lent. There is even a particular doughnut nicknamed “Fastnacht.”

Although most Lutherans don’t tend to fast for Lent anymore, we still like to spend a night in revelry before Lent begins. So we gather in the Fellowship Hall at 6:30pm for a dinner of pancakes and doughnuts. We end the evening by burning Palm branches from past Palm Sundays that will be ground into ashes for use in the next evening’s Ash Wednesday worship service.

Elca-YouthDonations Benefit Youth Gathering Participants. The youth group will cook.