St Giles' Fair
I love St Giles' Fair, which is held in Oxford every autumn on the first Monday and Tuesday after the Feast of St Giles. It's not the rides I like, in fact it's probably ten years since I even went on one, and then it was probably nothing more heartrate-raising than the dodgems. And it certainly ain't the candyfloss or the soft toys which seem to get bigger and more garish every year. I'm quite happy to leave all that noise and the crowds and the flashing lights and music to youth and the evening.
No, what I love is the complete topsy-turviness of an ancient tradition that empties one of Oxford's main thoroughfares of traffic - the whole of St Giles and the bottom ends of Woodstock and Banbury Roads - for two full days, and turns them over to the anarchic colour and confusion of the funfair. It's a kind of sole survivor of the feast of the lord of misrule, cocking a snook at town and gown (but chiefly the latter, when the students aren't even there to enjoy it).
It's good to remember that cars and buses and all the ways we rush about day by day, must sometimes give way to older pleasures and pastimes. Oh, and yes: I did walk into town and back.
No, what I love is the complete topsy-turviness of an ancient tradition that empties one of Oxford's main thoroughfares of traffic - the whole of St Giles and the bottom ends of Woodstock and Banbury Roads - for two full days, and turns them over to the anarchic colour and confusion of the funfair. It's a kind of sole survivor of the feast of the lord of misrule, cocking a snook at town and gown (but chiefly the latter, when the students aren't even there to enjoy it).
It's good to remember that cars and buses and all the ways we rush about day by day, must sometimes give way to older pleasures and pastimes. Oh, and yes: I did walk into town and back.
posted by Tony at 9/07/2004 10:58:00 am
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