Herbstmesse

I’m not a big carnival or amusement park kind of guy so Herbstmesse (Fall fair) would never appear on my top “X” list but I like traditions and have got to give credit where credit is due.  After all, when the bell at St. Martin’s church opened the fair this past Saturday, it marked the 546^th  installment, dating back to 1471.  It was on July 11^th of that year when, at the personal request of Pope Pius II, the Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III granted the Mayor of Basel, Hannsen von Berenfels, the perpetual right to hold two fairs each year, one in the spring and one in the fall.   This was not without some controversy, however, and in spite of this sponsorship from the top the spring fair fell victim to compromise twenty years later. Protectionism, it seems, is not just a contemporary issue and twenty years of bitching by the Basel guilds against the lifting of duties enjoyed by the out-of-town merchants during the trade fair wore down even a pope and an emperor.  As part of the compromise, the fall version continued and with the exception of a few cancellations along the way due to plagues and world wars it’s gone on now for over half a millennia.  As I said, I like traditions so I find this pretty cool.  In the ten years we've lived here, Lisa and I would succumb a few times each fall to Paige’s pleas and take her down.  How could we deny her, she enjoyed it so much.  Now that she’s almost fourteen, though, I confess to a bit of melancholy as she no longer counts on us to take her, scooting down instead with friends to experience the thrills of the various heart stopping rides. Sigh… This growing up part doesn’t get any easier, even with, maybe especially with, number four.  Anyway, speaking of the rides, obviously they’re all temporary installations and as an engineer I find them to be pretty damn impressive.  I sometimes wonder what Pius and Frederich would say when strapped into Daemonium, Maxximum 2 or der Burner.  An eternity of indulgences, I suppose, to the person who gets them off alive.