Kumquats and Pageantry

The Kumquat Festival is held annually in our small, historic town, and it grows bigger every year.  This time, I wanted to do it right and go all out with my son.  We had kumquat everything--pie, soda, ice cream--as well as a few fair favorites--kettle corn, greasy gyros, and funnel cake.  I must have spent an entire paycheck.  (Mind you, my paychecks are very modest.)

Sneaking some kumquat ice cream while working at the parish's women's club's pie stall.  Over 500 pies sold this year!

The stalls sold your typical wares: knits, generic jewelry, and silly garden rocks.  But there were a few stand-outs: like the booth of matryshka dolls with painted icons and Russian fairy tales (but so expensive!); a man who cut old-fashioned silhouettes under thirty seconds with a pair of scissors; Dia de Los Muertos-style skull cameo jewelry with hot pink, punk attitude; and some home accent crafts made of canvas and reclaimed wood that Pottery Barn wouldn't blush to include on its cover.

Kumquat puree, somethin' fizzy, and pure honey--the most refreshing drink!

What I loved best of all was the atmosphere, crowds of ordinary people in a festive mood, fine weather, trinkets to catch the eye, things you could have lived your entire life without knowing about if you hadn't come out to view the pageantry of living culture.  And then to think, people have attended market-fairs like this one for centuries and centuries.