Every nation has its own superpower. The Chinese want to open clothing markets anywhere on the planet. The English have to be silent so that
everything becomes clear to the questioner. The Spaniards have a way of inventing and celebrating holidays.
Spaniards are able to make a national holiday out of any event. Even from a fight. This is how Tomatina began.
It happened in August 1945, in the small Spanish town of Buñol, half an hour’s drive from Valencia. Buñol residents have been celebrating their main city holiday for a whole week – a festival in honor of the city’s patron saints, Saint Louis Bertrand and Our Lady. Suddenly, in the middle of the main square, a group of tipsy guys started a fight. No one remembers what started the fight, but
it ended with the young seniors starting to throw at each other
tomatoes, picking them from the tray of a street vegetable stall.
The idea of a mass slaughter, in which not a single arm was broken, not a single tooth was knocked out, and instead of blood the clothes of the participants were stained with stains of tomato juice, everyone liked it so much that they decided to repeat the event with tomatoes the next year.
Since then, Tomatina has become an annual holiday, which firmly established the little-known city of Buñol on the world map. Every last week of August, tourists flock here from all over the world, and on the day of Tomatina, the population of Buñol grows five times – from 10 to 50 thousand people.
To take part in the tomato battle, you need to get up early in the morning: at seven in the morning the car entrances to Buñol are closed. Tomatina proper begins at ten in the morning, when trucks with shells for the battle begin to arrive in the central square. Tomatoes are brought to Buñol from the neighboring town of Casteillon, where they are significantly cheaper. Trucks overturn bodies, tomatoes
pour out onto the pavement, a shot from a water cannon is heard – the signal for the start of Tomatina. Let’s go!
To ensure that nothing spoils the pleasure of the holiday, battle participants are advised to follow a few simple rules. Wear old clothes that you won’t mind throwing in the trash after Tomatina (which is where it will most likely go). Wear safety glasses (eg for swimming). Do not wear sandals or any shoes that could fall off your feet. A sandal that has flown away may not be found later.
The main rule of Tomatina is that the tomato must be crushed in your fist before throwing it. That’s why you don’t have to worry about a whole tomato flying into your forehead.
Just five minutes after the start of Tomatina, the central streets of Buñol
filled ankle-deep with crushed tomato mass.
If someone doesn’t get a whole tomato, you can just bend over,
scoop up a handful of red puree and throw it at your neighbor. The chaos continues for about an hour, during which reporters from local TV channels report live from the battlefield, covering their microphones and cameras with their hands. When you hear the water cannon fire again, this is the signal of the end, you can no longer throw tomatoes after it. Go with a crowd of participants to the river, wash away the traces of the battle.
Date: August 31
