Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
West Virginia is a melting pot of cultures. When settlers moved here from Italy, Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany and Switzerland to build their homes and lives, they brought with them their cultural traditions, some of which continue – hundreds of years later.
In the small community of Helvetia in Randolph County, one of those traditions is Fasnacht. Swiss for “fasting night,” Fasnacht is a celebration before Fat Tuesday that includes a masquerade ball where revelers don homemade and sometimes very elaborate masks to scare away Old Man Winter.
At the end of the night, an effigy of Old Man Winter is thrown into a bonfire while revelers dance, dine and be merry.
Four years ago, Marlinton resident Derek Trull learned about Fasnacht and eagerly attended the event to experience all the drama and excitement the little Swiss town had to offer.
He enjoyed it so much, that he and his partner, Casey Horton, have attended ever since. Not only do they attend, they make beautiful, whimsical masks for the masquerade.
The masks aren’t just something to scare away Old Man Winter. They have a story and for the past three years, Horton has been creating characters who all live in a small community in the woods. They only come out of the woods to interact with people on the night of Fasnacht. “We started out that first year researching, but once we did our first one, it’s been a little bit more of a controlled creative outlet,” Horton said. “Once we got the concept out, everybody loved it and then the second year, I wanted to develop off the same creature.
“Once I made that creature, I felt like that was sort of ours and now, each year, I’m adding on,” he continued. “If you ran into the woods and you came into this world, these are the people that you might meet.”
Trull added that when they were first trying to come up with a concept, they looked at the Swiss and Germanic traditions with Fasnacht and wanted to put an Appalachian spin on things. Almost like creating a cryptid like Bigfoot or Mothman.
“We wanted something that was cryptid, but not horror related, but woodsier and Appalachian,” Trull said. “I threw him the concept, and Casey went with it with his design.”
The characters don’t have names, yet, but they do have vocations. There have been sorcerers and gatherers and this year, they are hunters.
Horton began designing this year’s masks the day after Halloween, giving himself plenty of time to create two-of-a-kind characters.
Unlike traditional masquerade masks, Horton makes oversized heads that fit overtop his and Trull’s heads.
He makes the form out of chicken wire and builds it up with tape and papier mache. He also uses recycled materials, foam clay, fur and paint to bring the creature to life.
“We try to use as much recycled material as possible,” Trull said. “About ninety-percent of the entire outfit and mask is recycled material or stuff we just had lying around the house from years of collecting for crafts and other art projects.”
The costumes are usually simple to not detract from the mask, which is the star of the show.
“Last year we went a little bit overboard than the first year with the outfit,” Trull said. “There was a lot more accouterment to the outfit. This year, we’re going to try to bring it back just a little bit, more simple.”
Although they are human-like characters, Horton said he doesn’t want the characters to look human. The heads are large, so the rest of the body must be proportionate to match. Plus, they must be fully covered with none of the “human” inside peeking out.
“No skin,” he said. “That’s why with the outfit – you do have to proportion your shoulders a little bit to be a little less human. When your head is that big and you have normal human hands, it kind of takes you out of the fantasy of it all. We’re trying to scare Old Man Winter. I am the creature.”
This year, Fasnacht falls on Valentine’s Day – February 14 – so there will probably be a lot of love related or heart inspired costumes. Horton even admits that if he wasn’t working on building his theme of creatures from the same village, that he would probably have gone the Valentine’s Day route.
“Maddy, who works here with us, is going too – she’s doing a Valentine’s Day theme,” he said.
It also happens to be Horton’s birthday, so he is extra excited to be heading to Helvetia for the celebration.
He hopes to one day create a children’s book featuring the creatures and their village.
“I want a children’s book one day about what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m very dedicated to my story line. Each little character has a little paper book. It doesn’t have to be a big book, but when you put all the books together, it’s a big story.”
Helvetia has been celebrating Fasnacht for decades and it continues to grow as word gets out about the spectacular and unique event.
It grew a new fanbase in 2019 when Fallout 76 came out. The post-apocalyptic video game Fallout has a series of locations and 76 is in West Virginia. Included in the game is an exact replica of the town of Helvetia.
Due to this, fans of the game have come out in droves to participate in Fasnacht with their video game themed masks and costumes.
“When you go there, there are fifty people that are strictly there for Fallout,” Horton said. “I think in the game, they have a Fasnacht, so new masks come out every year from the game and you will see those masks at the event.”
The event includes craft vendors, food, live music and a square dance, that all take place during the day. Then, when night falls, the masquerade begins and the parade of “creatures” snakes through the town as they head to the main hall for the bonfire and the fiery farewell to Old Man Winter.
It won’t be until moments before the masquerade that Horton and Trull will unveil their masks. They like to keep them under lock and key until the very last moment, to keep the suspense going.
Horton and Trull’s masks are so popular, photos of them from previous years have appeared in Goldenseal and they have been illustrated into merchandise for Fasnacht.
During the masquerade, the event coordinators hand out Swiss Flags to the 25 best masks. Horton and Trull have won every year they’ve attended.
“I want that flag,” Horton said, laughing.
“That’s our big award,” Trull added.
Although the attention to their masks and all the work they put into them is nice, Horton and Trull said their goal is to help spread the word about Fasnacht and how fun it is to celebrate an old tradition that was brought to West Virginia hundreds of years ago.
“It’s so magical,” Horton said.
