A 5th Season? You Bet! The Minden Fasching Fifth Season Celebration Kicks Off this Friday!

A one point in my career I worked in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They said they had a fifth season. The running joke was that it wasn't actually the 'City of Five Seasons,' but more like the 'City of Five Smells,' due to the cereal plant:) Celebrate all that is German in Minden, Nov. 9-11, at the Minden Fasching Fifth Season Celebration.

Festivities begin at dusk on Friday, Nov. 9, when Minden flips the switch on thousands of Christmas lights throughout the city. More than 100 nutcrackers in all shapes and sizes will be displayed throughout downtown, paying homage Minden’s German heritage. Holiday lights will remain on until Jan. 2, 2013.

The Fasching Festival will officially begin in downtown Minden, 10 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 10. Festivities will feature German food and entertainment featuring all types of music from German to Rock and Roll. Artisans and crafters will be set up on the sidewalks of the historic Minden Main Street. Local beer enthusiasts will host a beer exhibition and beer garden at Orleans on Main Street. The evening will culminate with a spectacular fireworks display at dusk.

The festivities will continue at 11:11 a.m. on Nov. 11 in downtown Minden at a prayer brunch, where state and local dignitaries will be on hand. Minden Mayor Bill Robertson will present the key to the city to the Fasching Queen and King. The royalty will reign over the festivities through Christmas and Epiphany until Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.

To heighten the German experience, DiamondJacks Casino and Resort’s Chef Gunter Kilian will be demonstrating his extensive culinary skills crafting delicious, authentic German Strudel.  Chef Gunter will honor the King and Queen of Fasching during the Taste of Fasching Brunch, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 11 at the Minden Civic Center.  Tickets are still available for this brunch by contacting the Minden City Hall at 318-377-2144.

The Fasching tradition will be a German experience fit for the entire family, including the opportunity for the children to meet with Weihnachts Mann (Santa Klaus).  Children of all ages will also enjoy a petting zoo, clowns, and face painting.

The Minden Fasching Fifth Season Celebration brings the distinctive German traditions to visitors of Minden and Webster Parish and celebrates the heritage of Minden with its German influences. In 1835, Charles Veeder built an Iinn on a hilltop a few miles from Bayou Dorcheat. By 1837, he had laid out a town in the shape of a parallelogram. He named the settlement Minden, after the home of his ancestors in Germany. A year before Veeder arrived, a group of German Utopians, who had followed the mystic “Count Leon” to North America, established a settlement seven miles northeast of Minden.

Minden is located just 28 miles east of Shreveport on I-20, exit 47. For more information go to www.holidaytrailoflights.com, www.facebook.com/HolidayTrailOfLights, www.mindenusa.com, www.mindenfasching.com or call 318-371-4258.

Join the chorus and get in the holiday spirit as 8 of our most festive cities have decked the halls just for you and your family. Brilliant lights, great food, awesome music, festivals and parades as only Louisiana can do. The trail spans across I-20 and down I-49 incorporating the cities of Alexandria-Pineville, Minden, Monroe-West Monroe, Natchitoches and Shreveport-Bossier. The Holiday Trail of Lights has been delivering incredible holiday experiences for more than two decades. As a result it brings positive economic impact to the regions. The cities along the trail are all within driving distance of one another, making the tour a convenient hour-long trip from any one city to its neighboring city.