St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church of Lebanon has announced some of the details for its annual fasnacht sale.
Sale of the tasty pre-Lenten treat will begin at 11 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28, according to a video shared this past weekend by the church on social media. Sales will run 24 hours a day until sometime Sunday morning, March 2, when supplies run out.
The call-in time for preorders is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18. To place a preorder, call 717-273-5971 or 717-273-2432 to place a minimum preorder of six dozen fasnachts. The cost is $14/dozen and $7/half dozen. Preorder pick up will run from 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 1, to 9 a.m. on Sunday, March 2.
Volunteers at the parish at 120 E. Lehman St. are expected to produce around 1,680 fasnachts per hour during the sale, according to previous coverage of the event. That requires hundreds of hours of effort by volunteers, who can sign up to participate online.
Preparations for the annual event include stocking up on supplies such as 11,000 pounds of flour, more than 10,000 eggs, and plenty of margarine, Crisco, and milk, according to a previous report. St. Cecilia’s fasnachts are typically sold with a granulated sugar coating, although non-sugared options are also available on request.
Fasnachts are customarily prepared and eaten on Shrove Tuesday – Fat Tuesday – the last day before the start of the 40-day Christian observance of Lent. This year, Shrove Tuesday falls on March 4.
The doughnuts take their name from a German term meaning “fasting night.” The tradition arrived in the Lebanon Valley with German immigrants and, according to archival reports in the Lebanon Daily News, was kept alive by the Catholic church.
Read More: A short history of Lebanon’s love affair with fasnachts
Here is a video of fastnachts being made in a previous year’s sales.
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