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["Learn more about the Helvetia Zion Presbyterian Church: http://helvetiawv.com/Places/Church/Index.htmlThe town of Helvetia, West Virginia, population 59, was founded by Swiss-German immigrants in 1869. In the late 60s, around Helvetias centennial, town matriarch Eleanor Mailloux worked to revive many of Helvetias Swiss traditions, co-founding the Hutte Swiss restaurant, collecting a cookbook of community recipes, and restoring the Fasnacht celebration as a public event. Helvetia also has a long-standing cheese making tradition, practiced in private homes, and in the semi-public Cheese Haus, which now is located in an old renovated mechanics garage. Documentation of foodways traditions in the community is part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/Also see Emily Hilliards piece on Helvetias seasonal celebrations via The Bitter Southerner: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginia Read her piece on the Hutte Restaurant, Something Good from Helvetia, for the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/something-good-from-helvetia/ and NPR piece on Fasnachts foodways traditions: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/17/386970143/swiss-village-west-virginia-mardi-gras-feast-fasnacht"]%

37. Sign in the sanctuary of the Zion Presbyterian Church in Helvetia

Identifier:
4224.Helvetia.Photo.037.2.6.16
Title:
Sign in the sanctuary of the Zion Presbyterian Church in Helvetia
Date:
2016-02-06
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Swiss Americans, Presbyterian church buildings, Helvetia (W. Va.)
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["Learn more about the Helvetia Zion Presbyterian Church: http://helvetiawv.com/Places/Church/Index.htmlThe town of Helvetia, West Virginia, population 59, was founded by Swiss-German immigrants in 1869. In the late 60s, around Helvetias centennial, town matriarch Eleanor Mailloux worked to revive many of Helvetias Swiss traditions, co-founding the Hutte Swiss restaurant, collecting a cookbook of community recipes, and restoring the Fasnacht celebration as a public event. Helvetia also has a long-standing cheese making tradition, practiced in private homes, and in the semi-public Cheese Haus, which now is located in an old renovated mechanics garage. Documentation of foodways traditions in the community is part of the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance. Learn more: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/Also see Emily Hilliards piece on Helvetias seasonal celebrations via The Bitter Southerner: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginia Read her piece on the Hutte Restaurant, Something Good from Helvetia, for the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/something-good-from-helvetia/ and NPR piece on Fasnachts foodways traditions: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/17/386970143/swiss-village-west-virginia-mardi-gras-feast-fasnacht"]%

38. Front exterior of Helvetia wool studio with Swiss canton coat of arms

Identifier:
4224.Helvetia.Photo.038.2.6.16
Title:
Front exterior of Helvetia wool studio with Swiss canton coat of arms
Date:
2016-02-06
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Helvetia (W. Va.), Swiss Americans, Heraldry, Painted signs and signboards
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["Every year on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, the town of Helvetia in Randolph County, West Virginia, hosts its Fasnacht celebration, a pre-Lenten mountain Mardi Gras intended both to reinforce Swiss customs for locals and bring much-needed tourist dollars to the town in the sparse mid-winter months.Though the holiday was originally celebrated only by locals in the towns private homes, in the late 1960s, town matriarch Eleanor Mailloux restored the holiday as a public celebration. Today, Fasnacht attracts attendees from near and far. The event begins with an open music jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall or a special sampler plate dinner from the Hutte Restaurant. Then everyone gathers in the Star Band Hall in their homemade papier-mache masks for a masked lampion parade to the Community Hall. At the second hall, there is a mask contest for kids, a square dance called by local callers and accompanied by the Helvetia Star Band, and a treat table of traditional doughnuts and Swiss rosettes and hozablatz made by Diane Betler, Eleanor Betler, and other local bakers. All of this takes place under an effigy of Old Man Winter, hanging over the dance floor. At midnight the Old Man is cut from the rafters and burned on the bonfire outside, as the crowd sings a rousing a capella rendition of Country Roads. Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including Fasnacht: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd her piece on Fasnachts foodways traditions on NPRs The Salt: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/17/386970143/swiss-village-west-virginia-mardi-gras-feast-fasnacht Also see the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

39. Helvetia Community Hall decorated for Fasnacht, 2 of 2

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaFasnacht.Photo.002.2.6.16
Title:
Helvetia Community Hall decorated for Fasnacht, 2 of 2
Date:
2016-02-06
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Carnival, Winter festivals, Swiss Americans, Helvetia (W. Va.), Festivals
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["Every year on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, the town of Helvetia in Randolph County, West Virginia, hosts its Fasnacht celebration, a pre-Lenten mountain Mardi Gras intended both to reinforce Swiss customs for locals and bring much-needed tourist dollars to the town in the sparse mid-winter months.Though the holiday was originally celebrated only by locals in the towns private homes, in the late 1960s, town matriarch Eleanor Mailloux restored the holiday as a public celebration. Today, Fasnacht attracts attendees from near and far. The event begins with an open music jam at the Helvetia Star Band Hall or a special sampler plate dinner from the Hutte Restaurant. Then everyone gathers in the Star Band Hall in their homemade papier-mache masks for a masked lampion parade to the Community Hall. At the second hall, there is a mask contest for kids, a square dance called by local callers and accompanied by the Helvetia Star Band, and a treat table of traditional doughnuts and Swiss rosettes and hozablatz made by Diane Betler, Eleanor Betler, and other local bakers. All of this takes place under an effigy of Old Man Winter, hanging over the dance floor. At midnight the Old Man is cut from the rafters and burned on the bonfire outside, as the crowd sings a rousing a capella rendition of Country Roads. Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including Fasnacht: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd her piece on Fasnachts foodways traditions on NPRs The Salt: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/17/386970143/swiss-village-west-virginia-mardi-gras-feast-fasnacht Also see the Helvetia Foodways Oral History Project conducted by the West Virginia Folklife Program in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance: https://www.southernfoodways.org/oral-history/helvetia-west-virginia/"]%

40. Swiss flag lampions carried in the masked processional from the Helvetia Star Band Hall to the Helvetia Community Hall

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaFasnacht.Photo.013.2.6.16
Title:
Swiss flag lampions carried in the masked processional from the Helvetia Star Band Hall to the Helvetia Community Hall
Date:
2016-02-06
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Helvetia (W. Va.), Parades, Carnival, Winter festivals, Swiss Americans
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)