CLEVELAND — A historic village with a very rich German history in northeast Ohio is welcoming back events after a limited 2020.
Jon Elsasser had to make sure there was enough of something they didn’t have back in 1817 for this weekend’s festivities: Power.
“A couple of years ago when we did this, we found out we didn’t have quite enough power, so we revamped our power supply to make sure we are not going to be tripping breakers all day,” explained Elsasser, the president of the Zoar Community Association.
Historic Zoar Village was founded by German separatists in 1817.
“The log cabin, that was their print shop, but at the end of the society’s era in 1898, a lot of people from Cleveland bought houses down here,” Elsasser said.
Elsasser moved to Zoar in 1992 and got into his position about 15 years ago after decades in the business world. Now he enjoys celebrating the village’s rich German heritage.
“I love history. I like being involved in the community, keeping the history alive, keeping the traditions alive (and) teaching people about it,” said Elsasser.
Maifest is a traditional German festival meant to celebrate the coming of spring. But this year’s festival was even more special.
“This year in particular, it’s kind of a reopening after being shut down last year because of COVID-19. We had pretty good visitation on a daily basis, but all of our events were either canceled or scaled way down. So this is kind of our first one and it just represents the opening the site for the year and the spring season,” Elsasser said.
And Elsasser couldn’t wait to show off the community he’s loved for several decades.
“You know, being in business, I worked for a large company in Canton, an international company, and I lived in Brazil for five years and France for five years, but I like being part of a small community like this.”
This German village was happy to celebrate its heritage once again.
