periodical meetings of persons having goods or wares for sale, held in an open market at a central location, generally for the transaction of a particular class of business. In the Middle Ages fairs were of great importance and were specially privileged and chartered by princes and magistrates, public proclamation being made of their commencement and duration. But modern facilities for communication have much diminished the necessity for periodical markets, and it is now chiefly among agriculturists that they are of much importance. In Europe the most important fairs of the present day are those at Leipzig and Frankfort-on-the-Main in Germany, at Lyons in France and at Nijni-Novgorod in Russia. The latter is, indeed, the largest fair in the world. Fairs in the sense of markets are almost unknown in the United States, but the term is usually given to bazaars or collections of the products of art or industry for public exhibition and competition. They are usually combined with amusement features.