HELVETIA, WV — As the sun set behind the Appalachian mountain ranges on a Saturday night, revelers donned fantastic papier-mâché masks — a bright red creature with striped horns, a boar with a floral headdress, an autumn leaf — and happily marched at a masquerade ball to open sky.
The celebration included Swiss folk songs, tiny Swiss flags and paper lanterns. The climax was a parade through the streets of the village, led by an effigy of Old Man Winter, who was then thrown onto a raging bonfire to hasten the arrival of spring.
Helvetia, a community of only 85 people, has been hosting Fasnacht for more than half a century. The coronavirus pandemic forced it to be canceled last year – for the first time since 1967 – making this year’s celebration even sweeter.
Doug Davies, longtime festival organizer and public school teacher, seems excited about the festival’s return. “Covid has killed the community spirit,” he said. “But we are recovering.
Helvetia, like Fasnacht itself, has Swiss roots. The village was settled in the 19th century by Swiss and German immigrants and the buildings are of traditional Swiss architecture. The traditional Swiss restaurant Hütte serves sausages, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and potatoes. The Beekeeper Inn is booked months before the Fasnacht weekend. The Helvetia General Store also houses the Fasnacht mask museum.
In many parts of Switzerland, the carnival season, or Fasnacht, takes place in February and March. In Helvetia, it’s the weekend before Fat Tuesday, and enough visitors come here to increase the number of people in the city and more than triple its population.
While many revelers on Saturday said they were relieved to see the tradition return, some described a sense of urgency in their desire to experience what may be West Virginia’s most unusual public holiday. The Appalachians, according to Joe Holmes, a participant from Davis, West Virginia, 76 miles away, are “homogenizing like everything else. Those little pockets of uniqueness just dry up. It is the inevitable result of technology and progress.”
This year events have been moved outside as a precaution against Covid-19. Participants loitered along the banks of the upper Trout Run, warmed themselves by fires and enjoyed rosettes and Fasnacht donuts, traditional Swiss sweets. Visitors lined up to look inside a log cabin adorned with artifacts from the first settlers of Helvetia.
And on Saturday night, as the flames consumed the last bits of Old Man Winter, festival-goers joined in an a cappella performance of John Denver’s favorite anthem, “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”