Everyday Canvas

Medieval Fairs v.s. Scarborough Fair

Prompt: I think of Scarbough Fair as a Medieval Fair, not just a song. What do you think a Medieval Fair was like?

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I don’t like imagining stuff about the past, if there is some historical data available, and in this case, a lot of historical data exists.

Historically, a medieval fair was a market with buyers and sellers. The church organized most of those, making the medieval fairs something to attend to because of their religious connotations. Some of those fairs were held to honor certain saints, and due to that belief, contests and archery tournaments were held and singers, musicians, and acrobats entertained the merchants and shoppers. -–As an aside, I think if people really wanted to honor a saint, they should have begun by fixing their innards and refraining from fights and wars. --

As to the place itself, Scarborough is a seacoast town in England founded by Vikings, made famous by Simon and Garfunkel, and later turned into a resort town. It has a castle and all the makings of an English medieval town, subjected to conflicts, sieges, invasions, and civil wars. I am guessing that Simon and Garfunkel probably meant the Seafest held there every year as the Scarborough Fair, unless they were talking of another town possibly in USA, named after the English town, since most any place in USA is named after some other place in the old continent.

Considering what was involved, the real Scarborough fair would have little to do with a medieval fair, since Scarborough Fair song has connotations to sixties’ movements, beliefs, and emotions, whereas a medieval fair’s main goal had to be favoring the church’s welfare, be it holding together the flock or taking a lion’s share from the earnings of the merchants.