
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 3, 1992                   TAG: 9203030136
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: KELLY P. KISSEL ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LANCASTER, PA.                                LENGTH: Medium

FAT TUESDAY IS DAY OF DOUGHNUTS FOR AUSTERE AMISH

For high-livin' Cajuns, Tuesday is Mardi Gras, an occasion for parades and revelry. The sober, buttoned-down Amish celebrate the holiday, too - by taking its name, Fat Tuesday, literally.

In Pennsylvania Dutch country, the day before Ash Wednesday is called "Fasnacht Day," after the rich doughnuts that are the only ingredient in a pre-Lenten feast that dates to America's earliest days.

"What they used to do is keep all their fat over the winter and on Shrove Tuesday they would make these doughnuts," said the Rev. Stephen Rolko of the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Columbia, Pa.

The Amish, members of an austere German sect whose ancestors settled in Pennsylvania in the 1600s, shun many familiar things from the modern world, including Easter bunnies and Santa Claus. But their consumption of doughnuts makes this a sort of Amish Mardi Gras.

"It's as much a tradition as it is religion," said Roy Buck, professor emeritus of sociology at Penn State University. "If you ask the average Amish why he does it; he probably couldn't tell you why, other than because they've always done it."

There seem to be as many fasnacht recipes as there are Germans in Pennsylvania, but all are based on the formula their ancestors used.

"They were of the variety that was their tradition: heavy fat grease and dough," said Rolko. His church uses a more pleasant basic doughnut formula, and in-town bakeries use sour cream, sour milk or potato flour for flavor.

Fasnachts - the name means "night before the fast" - can be eaten plain, but are sometimes coated lightly with granulated sugar, powdered sugar, syrup or molasses.

"We can never make enough," said Frank Burnside, whose parents own a Lancaster doughnut shop. He cooked nine dozen in three minutes to meet the early demand last week.

"I have no idea how many I make," he said. "For two or three days, I'm going to sleep an hour or two whenever I can and keep making these."

During last year's fasnacht season, Rolko's church made 7,500 dozen. About 200 volunteers set up a production line that ran into Lent.

by CNB