Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-01-02
A Brief History of Fairs.

Fairs have peculiar and interesting
origin. Over the great rivers and high
ways in ancient days, with much diff
Guilty and danger, the merchant trans
ported his goods from one point to an
other. He touched only at the great
centres of populatinn, and travelled on
horseback with his merchandise liz his
pack saddles. A large body of cOnsum
ers were outside of the regular paths of
commerc ce, whom it was difficult to
reach. Unable to go to them, he sought
to make them come to him, and for this
purpose displays of merchandise were
made at certain fixed points and at GER
tain seasons Oft the year. Living in rude,
unsettled times, the merchant was
obliged to use extraordinary precau-
tions effectively to guard his treasures
and to secure himself against the nu-
merous bands of pillagers that infested
the country. For this reason merchants
were obliged to limit the circle of their
operations, to travel in armed bands,
or what was better still in that age. to
join some little company of pilgrims
journeying TO some famous shrine.
Chaucer shows us the merchant among
thar interesting group of pilgrims at
the Tabard inn, en- route to Canterbury.
He does not give very fiattering de-
scription of the merchant of those days.
For the same reason, doubtless, the pro-
lection afforded by religion as well as on
account of the numbers who assembled
at these shrines for the exhibition and
sale of relics and to perform religious
rites and penance, they became also the
points selected by the merchant for the
disposal of his commodities. From this
union of two objects in one, this mix
ture of religion and trade, comes the
two-fold derivation of the word fair,
from the Latin .fsriae, meaning church
festivals, and the French fore, meaning
place to which merchandise is
brought.
Fairs are of very early origin. We
see them in their incipient stages as far
back "a the time of Constantine, when
we read that Jews, Gentiles and Chris
tians assembled in great numbers TO
perform their several rites about a tree
reported to be the oak under which
Abraham received the angels. At the
same time, adds Tossimus, there also
came together many traders, both for
the sale and the purchase of wares. st.
Basil, toward the close of the sixth CEN
tury, complained that his church was
profaned by the public fairs held at the
martyrs shrine, and under the Fatim-
ite caliphs, in the eleventh century,
there was an annual fair held even on
Mount Calvary.
The most ancient fair known in
France, appears to have been that of
Troyes, in which mention is made in a
letter of Sidonius Apollonarius, toward
the end of the fifth century. More than
two centuries after Dagobert l, founded
the fair of st. Denis. This fair was not
only the oldest, but it was one of the
most celebrated fairs of France. IL be-
gan on October 10 and lasted ten days.
1t was opened by aprocession of monks
from the Abbey Of st. Denis, and in
later times it was usual for the Parlia-
ment of Paris to allow itself holiday
during the time of the fair in order that
its members might attend. The great
fairs of France began with the celebra-
ted "Foires de Champagne ct dc Brie' in
the twelfth century. To these fairs
fiocked merchants from all the provinc-
es of France and also from foreign lands.
The duration of each of these fairs was
six weeks, and there were six in the
course of year, so that they occupied
nine months out of twelve. The great
fairs in Germany were those at Frank
! fort and Magdeburg. In England the