FOOD FIGHT!

They sure know how to have fun in Italy and Spain!! Yes sir!

Ivrea is a small city about 40 minutes North of Turin. It has its day of glory once a year during Carnival, when a unique, exciting, anachronistic and most of all, juicy orange battle takes place. (This week!) The battle is an allegoric representation of a local insurrection, in 1194, against Holy Roman Emperor Frederick of Swabia. (a.k.a. Barbarossa - Red Beard, one of the Hapsburg's)

The account tells of a population incited to rebellion by the violent act of a woman who was only protecting her honour.
A young girl supposedly started the insurrection because "Red Beard" had a practice of letting Nobles enjoy a woman before her husband did.
That woman was Violetta, a young commoner who presented the head of the local tyrant -- Marquis Raineri de Biandrate -- to her fellow citizens from the castle balcony after he tried to steal her virginity on the eve of her wedding.

The citizens, empowered by Violetta's defiance, stormed the castle and burned it to the ground.




The carnival is rich in costumes, music and symbolism. The oranges of the Ivrea battles represent the head of the marquis. The pulp and juice are his blood.
Despite the general chaos, the line between combatants was clear.







Teams of throwers are outfitted in ornate uniforms, their volunteer adversaries wear padding and ride around in carts, and spectators are advised to wear a red scarf as they watch combatants -- many fueled by pasta and copious amounts of mulled wine -- repeatedly mount sorties against their symbolic enemies.

There are nine teams, 46 carts and more than a million oranges.

Later in the summer La Tomatina is a festival held on a Wednesday near the end of August in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region in Spain.

Tens of thousands of participants come from all over the world to fight in a harmless battle where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.
Your "pass the ketchup" scribe;
Allan W Janssen