emily in wonderland

Every spring, Moscow holds its annual Renaissance Faire.  People pull out their craftworks and dress in funny clothing and spend a weekend in the rain and mud pretending to live in an older time.  At the beginning of Oktober, Lüneburg held its annual Sülfmeistertage, a tradition that reflects Lüneburg's beginnings as a salt mining town in the 11th century.  Am Sande, one of the town's squares, was blocked to traffic and filled with games and craftsmen and, oh my, food.  It was basically like a Renaissance Faire in a place that actually, well, had a Renaissance.

I laughed as teams competed for the title of Sülfmeister, and I was awed by the quality of the craftsmanship, and I ate enough currywurst and crepes to last me until May.  Lüneburg's a small city, but it's an old city, and it's a proud city.  And when it parties, it parties.

That weekend was also another important day for the German people.  Sunday, 3. Oktober, was Der Tag der Deutschen Einheit: the Day of German Unity.  It marked 20 years since East and West Germany reunited into the country that is today the Bundesrepublik Deutschland.  It's pretty crazy for me to think that I've been alive the entire time that Germany has been a country.  I was born a month before the wall came down, and I was a year old when unification was declared.

And that really makes me think.  I live in a city that is a thousand years old, that used to be one of the richest cities in Europe because of it's massive salt trade.  Yet, I live in a country that's not even as old as I am.  Even pre-WWII Germany was only a few decades old, having been solidified from old pieces of the Prussian empire and the Holy Roman empire and whatnot only in the 19th century.  In fact, most of Europe is that way.  Borders as they currently exist are relatively new, having been constantly adjusted due to wars and marriages over the past thousand years.  The cities are old; the states are young.

My mother tells the story of celebrating the bicentennial of American Independence while living in Austria.  The Austrians she knew were happy for the Americans but smiled wryly to themselves.  200 years, they said?  That's all?  Salzburg had been around for centuries.  But, Austria hasn't.  Its current existance is a product of the Second World War.  Quite a few countries in today's world are a product of the Second World War or the end of colonial rule or the fall of the Soviet Union, all of which occurred in the 20th century.  The world is an ever-evolving place.  At that rate, the fact that the United States has maintained the same basic governmental system for over 200 years is basically a miracle.