St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church announces details for 2026 fasnacht sale

Editor’s note: This article was updated to contain new dates and phone numbers for pre-orders following phone line issues that prevented the pre-order from taking place as planned on Tuesday, Feb. 3.

St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church of Lebanon has announced details for its annual pre-Lenten fasnacht sale.

Fasnacht sales will begin at midnight on Friday, Feb. 13, according to a Jan. 21 post on the church’s Facebook page. Sales will run nonstop until supplies run out on Sunday, Feb. 15.

The cost is $14 for a dozen and $7 for a half-dozen.

The call-in time for preorders is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3. To place a preorder, call 717-708-1419, 717-241-3121, or 223-241-3121 to place a minimum preorder of six dozen fasnachts.

The call-in time for preorders is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 9. To place a preorder, call 570‑594‑4678, 609‑915‑8643, or 717‑675‑0315 to place a minimum preorder of six dozen fasnachts.

Preorders can be picked up from 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, to 8 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 15. There will be no exceptions, according to church representatives.

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.

In a social media post on Jan. 6, St. Cecilia’s announced the acquisition of “a newly refurbished Hobart dough mixer” to take replace the church’s oldest mixer, which has been repaired and will kept as a backup unit.

The new equipment is a 60‑quart mixer like the others, “but it packs double the power — jumping from a 1 hp motor to a 2 hp motor!” the post on Facebook says. “That means smoother dough, faster batches, and even more efficiency for our amazing kitchen volunteers.”

Fasnachts are customarily prepared and eaten on Shrove Tuesday – also known as Fat Tuesday – which is the last day before the start of the 40-day Christian observance of Lent. This year, Shrove Tuesday falls on Feb. 17.

The tasty treats take their name from a German phrase 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.

Here is a video of fastnachts being made in a previous year.