The second name of the festival is the Fight of Tomatoes (La Batalla del Tomate).
In the town of Bunol, situated in the eastern part of Spain, the Tomato Festival, dedicated to the passing summer, is held each year during the last week of August. As other Spanish festivals, this one has fireworks, music, dances, and free food. However, the tomato festival has a specific feature, which attracts thousands of tourists to Bunol. It is the tomato fight Tomatina (La Tomatina), which is held in the town square.
A special firecracker, squibbed on Wednesday at 11 o'clock in the city hall, serves as a signal to start the fight. After the signal, several trucks, loaded with the main heroes of the festival – red-ripe tomatoes, enter the streets of the city. Namely tomatoes are the throwing implements at the festival. The participants of the festival (the whole city of Bunol), being hit by tomatoes, run to the trucks, take the "implements", and merrily revenge those, who managed to reach trucks before them.
By the way, any one can become the target in this fight, and the main aim of the participants is to cannonade the neighboring people, and it does not matter, who they are. If we take into account, that there are nearly 40,000 participants, and hundreds of tons of tomatoes, it is easy to imagine, what happens to the square and the residents of the town after several minutes of the tomato fight.
Nearly all bars, cafes, restaurants, and any public places are closed during the fight, which lasts for 2 hours. The doors and windows are covered with special plastic panels. The participants of the Tomatina choose to wear as few clothes as possible, for during this day it is very difficult to remain clean even out of the town square. The expression "tomato rivers", used to describe this tomato riot, is not a simple witticism.
The historical roots of this unusual festival go back to the dictatorial regime of Franco. According to one version, throwing tomatoes at each other served as a symbolical protest against his regime. It is likely, that the tomato fight acquired this sense later, when the local festival became famous in the whole Spain.
The first tomato fight was registered in 1945, when during a festival in Bunol, celebrating the end of the summer, a group of young people, by inadvertence or willing to joke, dropped a big figure of one of the parade participants. The problem was that this participant was inside the figure. He did not understand the joke and started scuffle, and his friends joined him. The scrimmage was near the shops with vegetables, and tomatoes were used as throwing instruments. The police separated the fighters, and made them to pay for the vegetables. However, in a year, these people gathered on the same place, in this case, bringing tomatoes with them.
Gradually, the tomato cannonade spread to the whole city, and, despite the protests of the police, more people used to participate in it. In 1950, the local authorities stopped to interfere in the holding of the Tomatina, as the fight was called. However, the hot Spanish had not always throw tomatoes to each other, and even the influential people of the city became their targets. This is the reason, why Tomatina was prohibited in 1957. The upset Spanish organized a burial procedure of the Tomatina, with the participation of many people. A huge box with a tomato was carried along the town streets, and the funeral procession was accompanied by an orchestra and wailers. In 1959 the local authorities, under the pressure of the citizens, annulled the prohibition, and declared the Tomatina the official holiday of Bunol.
Then the rules of this festival, which are still valid, were adopted. There are only four prohibitions:
- the beginning and the end of the fight are declared by the signal firecracker from the city hall;
- the only throwing instrument is tomatoes, and the tomatoes themselves must be mashed before the throw to avoid injuries;
- it is prohibited to tear the clothes of each other;
- it is prohibited to impede the movement of trucks with tomatoes.
Due to these simple rules, no one Tomatina festival ended with serious incidents.
Till 1975, each resident used to pay for their instruments, bringing tomatoes with them. In 1975, the monks of the St. Louis Bertrand Order, the patron of the town, used to bring "weapons". In five years the town municipality engaged in the organization of the festival, and the number of participants, as well as the quantity of thrown tomatoes, increased greatly.
Tomato fights end with bathing in swimming-pools, full of tomato juice, and a lottery of the hams of the traditional Iberian pig. In the end of the festival, the tomato mess reaches the wrist of feet, and the neighboring houses, as well as the festival participants, become of red color. After the fight itself the square is washed, and the Tomato Festival, the last festival of the passing summer, goes on for some days more.
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