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["The Helvetia Community Fair, located in the Swiss community of Helvetia in Randolph County, is one of the oldest agricultural fairs in West Virginia. Activities include a parade in Swiss costume, alphorn music, Swiss folk dancing and singing, fahnenschwingen (flag twirling), a crafts, food, and canning exhibition, field events, an archery shoot, and more.Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including the Community Fair: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd in 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/"]%

25. Karlen Road fair queen contestants float at the Helvetia Community Fair parade, 1 of 2

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaCommunityFair.028.Photo.9.10.16
Title:
Karlen Road fair queen contestants float at the Helvetia Community Fair parade, 1 of 2
Date:
2016-09-10
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Parades, Helvetia (W. Va.), Swiss Americans, Festivals
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["The Helvetia Community Fair, located in the Swiss community of Helvetia in Randolph County, is one of the oldest agricultural fairs in West Virginia. Activities include a parade in Swiss costume, alphorn music, Swiss folk dancing and singing, fahnenschwingen (flag twirling), a crafts, food, and canning exhibition, field events, an archery shoot, and more.Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including the Community Fair: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd in 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/"]%

26. Karlen Road fair queen contestants float at the Helvetia Community Fair parade, 2 of 2

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaCommunityFair.029.Photo.9.10.16
Title:
Karlen Road fair queen contestants float at the Helvetia Community Fair parade, 2 of 2
Date:
2016-09-10
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Parades, Helvetia (W. Va.), Swiss Americans, Festivals
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["The Helvetia Community Fair, located in the Swiss community of Helvetia in Randolph County, is one of the oldest agricultural fairs in West Virginia. Activities include a parade in Swiss costume, alphorn music, Swiss folk dancing and singing, fahnenschwingen (flag twirling), a crafts, food, and canning exhibition, field events, an archery shoot, and more.Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including the Community Fair: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd in 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/"]%

27. Jonathan Lacocque and Clara Lehmann announce float awards on the Meadow Stage at the Helvetia Community Fair

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaCommunityFair.030.Photo.9.10.16
Title:
Jonathan Lacocque and Clara Lehmann announce float awards on the Meadow Stage at the Helvetia Community Fair
Date:
2016-09-10
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Helvetia (W. Va.), Swiss Americans, Parades, Festivals
Location:
Helvetia (W. Va.)
["The Helvetia Community Fair, located in the Swiss community of Helvetia in Randolph County, is one of the oldest agricultural fairs in West Virginia. Activities include a parade in Swiss costume, alphorn music, Swiss folk dancing and singing, fahnenschwingen (flag twirling), a crafts, food, and canning exhibition, field events, an archery shoot, and more.Learn more in Emily Hilliard's Bitter Southerner piece on Helvetia's seasonal celebrations, including the Community Fair: https://bittersoutherner.com/my-year-in-helvetia-west-virginiaAnd in 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/"]%

28. The Betler's threshing machine (known in Helvetia as a "thrashing" machine) on display in the meadow at the Helvetia Community Fair

Identifier:
4224.HelvetiaCommunityFair.080.Photo.9.10.16
Title:
The Betler's threshing machine (known in Helvetia as a "thrashing" machine) on display in the meadow at the Helvetia Community Fair
Date:
2016-09-10
Creator:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Helvetia (W. Va.), Festivals, Agricultural exhibitions, Threshing machines, Parades
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/"]%

29. 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.)

Listen to Audio

30. Oral history of Kristy Henson

Identifier:
4224.HensonKristy.AudioInt.3.25.20
Title:
Oral history of Kristy Henson
Date:
2020-03-25
Creator:
Henson, Kristy
Contributor:
Hilliard, Emily
Subject:
Video games--Design, Apocalyptic art, Video games, Video gamers, Helvetia (W. Va.), Parades, Festivals, Carnival masks, Carnival, Tourism and the arts, West Virginia--Fiction
Location:
Buckhannon (W. Va.), Charleston (W. Va.)