Our current springlike weather seems to indicate that old man winter might be gone. 

That’s possibly due to burning his effigy to a crisp in Helvetia, West Virginia at last week’s annual Fasnacht celebration. In the remote Randolph County Swiss enclave, preserving history has morphed into the Mardi Gras of Appalachia.

The Helvetia community hall was packed with reveling square dancers as Fasnacht 2025 came to a raucous close. Fasnacht is a celebration of winter, the changing seasons, and a pre-Lenten tradition that dates back to 1520 in Switzerland. 

Helvetia was settled by Swiss immigrants in the 1860s – and quite a few direct descendants of the original settlers living here still take pride in their heritage. Fasnacht is German for “fasting night,” which celebrates a grand feast and party before a fast.

Helvetia-style square dancing was introduced here in the early 1900s by immigrant loggers who came into the area with the rapidly growing timber industry.

Fastnacht’s first lady is Clara Lehman, president of the Helvetia Restoration and Development Organization. Lehman said the hundreds of Fasnacht revelers wearing paper mâché masks and joining in parades and historic tours help keep Swiss traditions alive.

“We make sure that we support our youth and our families and things like that,” Lehamn said. “Through making sure buildings that are historic are preserved, but also that these children and community members remember the recipes, the dancing. We wanted to make sure that we continue to hold this tradition, to its roots in that it is a party, it’s revelry, it’s sexy, it’s fun.”

Archivist Anna Chandler works in the Helvetia Heritage Center, part of the community’s historic village. Chandler said the fortitude of the hardscrabble Swiss pioneers who cut Helvetia out of raw forest remains today.

“I’m a history student,” Chandler said. “I firmly believe if you don’t study it, learn from the past, you are doomed to repeat it. And that’s what we’re seeing in other parts of the world right now. This used to be a much later in the day event. We brought it up into the daytime, in the daylight, so that it’s more kid friendly. And you’ll see a lot of kids out there in masks, which is awesome.”

Young Garrett Bragg is a first time Fasnacht-er from Fayetteville who was thrilled he finally made it here.

“We’ve heard about it for years,” Bragg said. It’s just a really cool, old tradition. It’s just reading about it, reading everything here, it’s nice to be able to come out. Appalachian heritage is dying out. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s just something that doesn’t exist much anymore, and to preserve it is just nice to be able to do it.”

Helvetain David Whipp gives the three block Helvetia Fasnacht tour. He explained that the “get rid of winter fest” began decades ago in local homes, then in the 1960s, they went public. 

“And then people started saying, ‘It looks like fun, we’re coming,’” Whipp said. “We used to get together at the house that WVU professor had here, and I can remember he had a two-keg tapper in the front room.”

You might expect that at the Mardi Gras of Appalachia there would be a bit of imbibing. 

And there’s game playing – or should I say game re-living. I’m talking about the hundreds of online gamers coming here who play the action role playing survival game, Fallout 76, the Wild Appalachia Fastnacht update. 

Callie Williams of Florida and Michelle Audet from Michigan are part of a cross-country Fallout 76 gamer group – meeting in person for the first time here at Fasnacht.

“It looks just like it does in the game, and it’s just kind of mind blowing,” Williams said. “We have the Cheese House and the Honey House and the General Store. What I was looking forward to most has already happened, and that was spending time with my friends and getting to know them in person. Two of us are from Ohio, one from Michigan, one from Oregon, and three from New York.”

Audet said she hailed from Westland, Michigan – which is coincidentally, my hometown.

“We all come here to Helvetia to enjoy the festival, wear our masks and learn about the history of Helvetia and also enjoy the Fallout 76 experience,” Audet said. “This is a heck of a way to meet a group, it’s amazing. There are so many different masks. You see the history of Helvetia, the whole atmosphere is just absolutely awesome. I love it.”

Fasnacht first lady Clara Lehman said the celebratory collision of old Swiss tradition and futuristic gamer AI is an overwhelming blessing for Helvetia.

“It is the most weird and amazing and so poignant for the time when AI and all this technology is becoming a part of who we are,” she said. “These people are a reflection of where we are in society, but I think it’s wonderful. They’re very respectful. We have actually had some Fallout 76 fans that donate to our community on a monthly basis. And while there has been a burden on us as a community, to figure out how to accommodate more people, and they are part of that factor, it has been a joy for us. It has let us restore buildings more and actually develop our organization into something that may be more official, and that’s a good thing.”

After burning a paper mâché old man winter in a big bonfire and square dancing the night away, Fasnacht-ers amble off to the inn, or camp or Airbnb or an hour away to lodgings in Elkins.

The next morning, stepping out of Helvetia’s ever-so-quaint, three-room Beekeeper Inn to head home, you hear just the soothing babble of the Buckhannon River. And you think: Will we be back to Fasnacht next year?