Carousel

All photographs by Colin Campbell

Joni Mitchell, The Circle Game

And the seasons they go round and round

And the painted ponies go up and down

Were captive on the carousel of time

We cant return we can only look behind

From where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

The Hollies, On A Carousel

Riding along on a carousel
Trying to catch up to you
Riding along on a carousel
Will I catch up to you

Horses chasing 'cause they're racing
So near yet so far
On a carousel, on a carousel

What do you think of when you hear the word carousel? Do you immediately think of the amusement ride (also called a merry-go-round or roundabout), or are you more likely to think of the thing at the airport that brings your luggage (if lucky) to the claim area after your flight? Say, does anybody remember the other type of carousel, the plastic thing that held your slides and transparencies and allowed them to be slotted into a projector one at a time so that the images could be shown on a screen? Anyone? No-one? I guess in this age of computers and digital media nobody want to admit to such ancient technology? 

I was actually thinking of the first meaning for the word as mentioned in the last paragraph. Again, as I've stated before, being from Niagara Falls Ontario I have this carnival side to my being; an appreciation for cotton candy, the sound of steam pipe organs, and the love of lights and glitter and glitz. For many years too I have been a fan of the 'kiddie' ride, the carousel, with the beautiful prancing ponies (the variations that have wild animals et al I'm not so keen on) going endlessly round and round. I've always liked them, though when I think about it I don't believe that I ever actually came across one in Niagara Falls itself. Hmmm. Anyway, I have always marveled at the figures of the animals.

There is something else happening here though and often you only see it if you divorce yourself from all the other distractions going on around you. Now that you have taken a breath and centered your attention take a look at the expressions on the horses' faces. Often what you see is that the animal depicted is frightened, often terrified, and the idea that comes to my mind is that these creatures are not leaping for joy, they are running for their lives.

Interesting isn't it?

And don't get me started about clown faces when seen close up. Now those are really scary.

Okay, History 101.Where does the word originate from?

Here's an entry I found for it on the web.

The earliest carousel is known from a Byzantine Empire bas-relief dating to around 500 A.D., which depicts riders in baskets suspended from a central pole. The word carousel originates from the Italian garosello and Spanish carosella ("little war"), used by crusaders to describe a combat preparation exercise and game played by Turkish and Arabian horsemen in the 1100s. In a sense this early device could be considered a cavalry training mechanism; it prepared and strengthened the riders for actual combat as they wielded their swords at the mock enemies. European Crusaders discovered this contraption and brought the idea back to their own lands, primarily the ruling lords and kings. There the carousel was kept secret within the castle walls, to be used for training by horsemen; no carousel was allowed out in the public. Eventually some small carousel rides were made and installed for royalty in their private gardens. Soon after that, with the pomp of France and circumstance of Paris a grand game was devised and played in Le Place du Carrousel. Along with a pageantry-filled jousting tournament it also consisted of "combatants" throwing clay balls filled with perfumed water at each other, thus those being hit would smell for days. A highlight of the carrousel was the ring-tilt, in which knights would attempt to spear suspended rings at full gallop.

Now that puts an interesting wrinkle in the idea of the innocent little ride, doesn't it? And when you think of it it also goes a long way to explain the expressions you see on the horse's faces.

All this verbiage here and all I wanted to do was show you a couple of photographs that I had taken of a nice little carousel I saw in Seattle a couple of years back, near the Space Needle and Science Fiction Museum.