Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 289, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1911 — REVIVAL OF FAMOUS FAIR [ARTICLE]

REVIVAL OF FAMOUS FAIR

Students in Paris Parade on Anniversary of the Lendit, Celebration of Centuries Ago. American students must envy their European brothers the excuses for getting up celebrations and anniversaries. The students of the university of Paris this year determined to revive the famous fair of the Lendit. From the twelfth century to the sixteenth, this annual fair, held in the plain of St. Denis, was the occasion of much festivity. The official connection with the university was that the whole student body, headed by the faculty and the rector, went In procession to buy enough parchment to last for the year. It Was hardly possible to carry out the festival exactly, but at the close of the college year, one Saturday evening, heralds, accompanied by torch: bearers and trumpeters, went through, the Latin quarter announcing the coming pageant. And next afternoon a fantastic procession started from the Pantheon First came a squad of archers and mounted trumpeters, then the herald of the city on foot Behind him appeared the rector of the university*, with a mounted man carrying his banner, the provost of the parchment sellers, professors and members of the faculty in their robes. Then came a merry column following the "King of the Basoche,” who was mounted on a donkey and accompanied by his clowns. This column consisted of the students of the four nations—France, Anjou, Picardy and Normandy, each with its band of music. + While the only object of the pageant was fun, it was correctly costumed, the frescoes of the Sorbonne furnishing all the information needed. The participants and the crowds of speo tators enjoyed it so much that it may be made an annual affair.