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A November evening in the Zunftsaal; candlelight casts warm shadows against the wood-paneled walls. The St. Martin’s Feast, the guild’s annual statutory dinner, is drawing to a festive close. And as it does every year, once the glasses are filled and the speeches have been made, a song that has belonged to this moment for generations rings out to mark the end: "Enjoy life while the lamp is still burning."
A portrait quietly watches over the proceedings: in the Zunftsaal, the most beautiful room in the building, hangs the likeness of Johann Martin Usteri—a man who, at the end of the Ancien Régime and the beginning of the 19th century, was one of Zurich's most popular and respected figures. Usteri was a poet, painter, and musician all in one, a dilettante in the best 18th-century sense of the word: someone who dedicated himself to several arts out of joy and talent.
His most famous work has stood the test of time and remains inextricably linked to Zurich to this day. The song's chorus figuratively describes a journey of conquest around the globe—a line that speaks to the vitality and cosmopolitan spirit of its author. Usteri was a member of the Waag guild himself, so it is no coincidence that his work became an integral part of the Martini banquet.
To this day, his song is sung every year by candlelight to conclude the Martini banquet—a goosebump-inducing moment that connects those present, if only for a heartbeat, with everyone who has sung this song in this hall before them. When you are a guest at the Zunfthaus zur Waag, you are sitting in the very same house where art, camaraderie, and memory have gone hand in hand for over two centuries.
Source: historical information based on Philipp Oswald Welti, former guild master of the Zunft zur Waag.
