Culture in Spain: La Tomatina Tomato fight
This is surely the worlds' biggest food-fight. Every year, around 30,00 people descend on the Spanish town of Bunol (in the Valencia region of Spain) to throw more than 240,000 pounds of tomatoes at each other.
The festival starts with a ham-on-a-stick contest where competitors raced up a pole to retrieve a smoked leg of ham. When the ham is cut down, people put on eye protection and wait tor the tomatoes as trucks dump the squishy produce onto the village streets. They then proceed to pelt each other with them until all have been used up.
The festival on the last Wednesday of August is called 'the Tomatina' and is basically a town-wide tomato fight. It is thought the tradition began in 1945 when a fight erupted among two young members of a carnival crowd. A vegetable stall was nearby in the town square and every one started throwing tomatoes at each other. Exactly one year later, young people met at the square, but this time with their own tomatoes. Another food-fight started but was broken up by police.
In the following years this practice was banned by the authorities, but due to popular demand , it was given official recognition in 1959.
Take your ear plugs to San Sebastian in January, because its time once again for the infamous and deafening La Tamborrada. Prepare yourself to see and hear this sleepy resort town come alive with the sound of thousands of beating drums, all day and all night. This event is held on 20 January annually.
Spain is known for hosting some exceptionally wild fiestas, but nothing can prepare you for the high-decibel madness of La Tamborrada. It's a short but intense festival. The whole begins like this - from midnight to midnight companies of perfectly uniformed marchers parade through the streets of San Sebastian playing drums and barrels in honor of their patron saint, the Donostia of San Sebastian.
The activity begins on the evening of January 19th at the Plaza de la Constitution and winds through all the barrios of the old city for the next 24 hours.
As with many Spanish traditions, the origin of La Tamborrada is a bit twisted. It appears as though in 1720 a baker was filling water barrels from a fountain near the Iglesia de San Vicente. While filling the barrels he began to sing, and a group of young girls passing by started banging on the barrels as accompaniment. A crowd started to gather and this impromptu jam session evolved into the spectacle you see today.
San Fermín, Paplona
Every year from July 7th-14th thousands pack into Pamplona to start Spain's most famous bull-running fiesta to honour Navarre capital's patron saint, San Fermin. Spain stages more than 3,000 fiestas (festivals) each year but the 7 days of bull-running are the favourite in terms of spectacle and excitement.
After the daybreak of July 7th, runners, mainly young men, gather at the bottom of Santo Domingo, which is the starting line. They crowd together and sing to the image of San Fermin which is placed in a niche on a wall.
Then, as a rocket goes off, a number of fighting bulls are let out onto the streets. A second rocket is then let off to make sure everyone knows the bulls are loose in the street. The bulls run along the narrow street 825 metres (half a mile) to a bull ring. The runners dash along in front of the bulls, aiming to feel the breath of the bull on their backs, getting as close as possible - all whilst trying to avoid getting gored by their sharp horns.
The supposed way to do this is to start off slowly when the bulls are quite a distance behind. Then as they get nearer start running like hell! You can then go near them for a short time, as near as you are prepared to risk it, and then quickly get out of the way. Runners look for a gap in the fence to slip through or jump over, or a space against the wall of the street.
When the bulls finally reach the end of the street, they go into pens and are kept until later that day they are killed in a bullfight.
The tradition is said to have come from practicality when, in 1591 residents merely had to herd the bulls to the bull-fighting arena. At first only the drovers were used to lead the bulls. But it seems that at some date, the butchers guild, who had the responsibility of buying the bulls, began to join in with the drovers and began to chase behind the bulls and heifers up to the bull-ring from Santo Domingo street - the starting point of the run.
As time passed the event became more and more popular and some people began to run in front of the bulls and not behind them, as the drovers do. In 1852, a new bull-ring was built and a new route - becoming much shorter also, because as from 1899, it was decided to bring the bulls up to a small corral in Santo Domingo street the night before they fight in the ring.
Originally only a few daring souls ran with the bulls but the adrenaline rush of running in front of a 1500lb bull has since caught on. People now journey from all around the world to run with the bulls.
imágenes (pictures)
La Tomatina Tomato fight
La Tamborrada, San Sebastián, Basque Country
San Fermín, Paplona
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