Why is La Tomatina celebrated in Spain?

Why is La Tomatina celebrated in Spain?

La Tomatina is traditionally celebrated in the Valencian town of Bunol . The people who live in the area know what’s coming, so preparation is key. They take huge plastic sheets and giant bits of board, using them to cover their balconies and shop fronts to make sure they’re not damaged during the tomato onslaught.

When is La Tomatina celebrated?

La Tomatina is celebrated on the last Wednesday in August in the small town of Bunol in eastern Spain. This year the festival takes place on August 29th, 2018. The festival began way back in 1944 but there is no known religious or political basis for it.

Is there a tomato festival in Italy?

La Tomatina Festival. La Tomatina happens every year in Bunol , Spain on the last Wednesday in August and is the highlight of a week-long local festival in honour of the town’s patron saint, San Luis Bertràn, and the Virgin Mary . The actual tomato throwing lasts for only two hours between 11am and 1pm.

When is the Tomato Festival in Spain?

La Tomatina is Spain’s tomato throwing festival that takes place annually on the last Wednesday in August in the town of Buñol. The origins of the festival are largely unknown, though a popular story tells of a group of teenagers who engaged in a food fight after a summertime religious celebration in the 1940s.

La Tomatina (Spanish pronunciation: [la tomaˈtina]) is a festival that is held in the Valencian town of Buñol, in the east of Spain 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the Mediterranean, in which participants throw tomatoes and get involved in a tomato fight purely for entertainment purposes….

La Tomatina
Frequency annual

What is the origin of La Tomatina?

La Tomatina started in 1945 during a parade of Giants and Bigheads. Some local youth decided to take part in it, and some of the members of the party got angry. There was a small dispute near where there was a vegetable stand. The dispute became a tomato toss between both sides, until the police ended the “conflict.”

When was La Tomatina banned?

The tomato throwing continued for a few years until it was banned in the early 1950s. The festival was once again permitted after enough locals and others protested in favor of La Tomatina in 1957 and the La Tomatina Festival has since gained in popularity exponentially.

How La Tomatina represent Spanish culture?

Buñol is Spanish town famous for a world renowned tomato fight festival known as “La Tomatina”. The tomato battle erupted and soon random pedestrians and other town people were drawn into the battle which culminated in a large food fight. …

How does La Tomatina present Spanish culture?

What Is La Tomatina? La Tomatina is a tomato-throwing festival where participants are not only allowed, but encouraged to hurl tomatoes at one another during a full-on, two-hour-long food fight. The festival carries on a tradition that started in 1945 and has now become a staple of Spanish tradition in Valencia.

What is the first event of La Tomatina called?

Today, the Tomatina event starts at 10am in the morning with the first event called ‘el palo jabón’ which is effectively a greasy pole. At the top of the pole is a Spanish ham. People attempt to climb the pole, and when someone reaches the top and jumps down with the ham, the party really begins.

Is La Tomatina religious?

La Tomatina, Spain’s tomato festival, is unusual because unlike most food festivals it has no religious significance. It’s not a harvest festival and there are neither any pagan origins. There is, after all, no patron saint of tomatoes.

What is the main idea of La Tomatina?

What Is La Tomatina? La Tomatina is a tomato-throwing festival where participants are not only allowed, but encouraged to hurl tomatoes at one another during a full-on, two-hour-long food fight. Its purpose is purely for entertainment.

Is La Tomatina a waste of food?

Well, in Buñol they throw these tomatoes each other instead of away, making La Tomatina not a waste but a recovery of resources. So there is no reason to forbid the recovery of discarded tomatoes. Before La Tomatina, those tomatoes had to be thrown away, and still are other than the last ten days before the Festival.

What are the origins of La Tomatina?

The origin of La Tomatina. All started the last Wednesday of August in 1945 when some young people spent the time in the town square to attend the Giants and Big-Heads figures parade. The young boys decided to have a place among the retinue of a parade with musician, Giants and Big-Heads figures.

How did La Tomatina start?

Wikipedia says the most popular theory is that La Tomatina started in 1945 during a parade of ‘Little Rabbit,’ where people threw tomatoes at some woodland creatures eating the watermelons, one missed and it hit a person, and then a tomato fight broke out.

author

Back to Top