March 1, 2011

LEBANON – There is always something new to learn, or eat, at the Pennsylvania German Heritage Fest, planned this year from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, March 19, at the Lebanon Campus of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College.

The 16^th annual Pennsylvania German Heritage Festival is a free public celebration featuring food, art, crafts, music and history at the campus downtown at 735 Cumberland St. It attracts about 1,000 visitors annually from Central Pennsylvania, and as far away as Maryland, Virginia and even Germany.

Among the festivities:

Food for sale is provided by Hitz’s Farm Market, Manheim, which has served the event since the festival’s inception. Offerings will include traditional Pennsylvania German specialties, such as chicken pot pie, schnitz un gnepp (apples and buttons, which is an entree of ham, raised dumplings and stewed apples) and shoofly pie. Crafts by artisans will include fraktur, scherenschnitte, redware and Moravian stars. History, genealogy, language and literature resources will be available and several booths will be filled from area non-profit organizations that promote culture and history of the area.

This is a project of the Pennsylvania German Studies Program and supported by HACC, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and the Community of Lebanon Association. 

For more information, contact Annette Beamesderfer, director of the Learning and Testing Centers at the Lebanon Campus Office for Academic Success, at 717-274-2297 or e-mail albeames@hacc.edu.