The Story of La Tomatina –The Famous Tomato Fight Festival of Spain

To know more about La Tomatina, and enjoy the facts, quiz, essay and activities, click the link below.

https://makemegenius.com/la-tomatina-for-kids.php

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Rachel- Hey Pip, ready to take a quick quiz on tomatoes?
Pip- Yeah, why not, I love to eat tomatoes….and I know everything about tomatoes.
Rachel- OK, let's see. I will ask you 4 questions
Pip- Go ahead
Rachel- Tomatoes are which part of the plant
Pip- Fruit……that’s an easy one
Rachel- Which vitamin is present in tomatoes?
Pip- Vitamin C. That’s why eating tomatoes is good.
Rachel- Oh nice, you know it. Tell me now, why is tomato scientifically considered a fruit, though people use it as vegetable
Pip- Because it contains seeds and develops from the ovary.
Rachel- Correct. Which is the biggest tomato fight in the world?
Pip- Tomato fight? I have never heard of that. What is it?
Rachel- It’s the festival of La Tomatina, celebrated every year in the city of Buñol, in Spain.
Pip- So do you mean people fight with tomatoes, during this festival? Tell me how did this crazy festival start?
Rachel- This is an interesting story. In the city of Buñol, in Spain on the last Wednesday of August in 1945, a few young people went to the town square to attend the Giants and Big-Heads figures parade. In their excitement, they did not realize when they bumped against one of the participants, who fell on a heap of tomatoes, selling alongside the road. The participant got angry and started throwing tomatoes on the group of these young men. Soon the crowd started throwing tomatoes at each other until the police came to end the fight.
Pip- This is funny, how a decent parade turned to a vegetable fight. But did it happen the next year too?
Rachel- The Next year and many years after that, people used to bring tomatoes from home and knowingly picked up a fight during the parade and used to throw tomatoes on the crowd. Slowly they started liking the tomato fight, and that’s how La Tomatina started being celebrated as a festival.
Pip- And were the police of that area fine with that fight?
Rachel- No, in fact, the festival was finally banned in early ’50s. But by then people had developed a liking for this festival, which was full of energy. So the city officials allowed the people to participate in the festival in 1957.
Pip- And where do all these tomatoes come from?
Rachel- Interestingly, the city of Buñol does not grow any tomatoes. For the festival, tomatoes are specially grown in Extremadura, a beautiful tourist destination situated 570 km away from Buñol.
Pip- People must be using lots of tomatoes during the festival.
Rachel- Yeah, 150,0000 Kg of tomatoes, just for an hour’s fight.
There are a lot of events that start a week before the last Wednesday of August. Parades, fireworks, music, dancing and the exciting cooking contest called paella cook-off contest
Pip- Wow, one full week of festivity, I would love to be a part of the festival next year.
Rachel- Yeah, the festival is so popular, that on the day of La Tomatina, Buñol’s population swells from just 9,000 to about 30,000.
Pip- Are there some rules of the tomato fight? Because without rules it may take a dangerous shape.
Rachel- Well, for the festival, people wear clothes that they would not mind throwing away, and there are rules for the fight that people follow with discipline.
Rule No 1 is the tomatoes have to be squashed before throwing to avoid injuries.
Rule No 2 says, only tomatoes should be thrown during the fight, nothing else.
Rule No 3, says, participants should make way for the tomato loaded trucks and lorries
And Rule number 4 says, as the bell rings, to end the fight, no more tomatoes should be thrown after that.
Pip- So everybody is allowed to be a part of the festival?
Rachel- no, only People above the age of 18 years are allowed, and they should have bought the festival tickets, which cost about 10 euros. And the start of the tomato fight is equally interesting.
Rachel- A delicious Spanish ham stick is hung on the top of a greasy wooden pole which is about two stories high. Some enthusiastic man has to climb that greasy pole and get back the ham, to officially start the festival of La Tomatina.
Pip- Oh, that’s a difficult thing to do. And who cleans the city after the fight? It would so dirty after tons of tomatoes being thrown on the roads.
Rachel- After the fight is over the city is washed with the fire trucks, carrying the big hose and the city looks much cleaner than before.
Pip- Oh, is it because tomatoes are acidic so they pull the dirt off?
Rachel- Yes, absolutely.
La Tomatina is a festival of happiness, friendship, and energy. This year though the festival of La Tomatina is canceled, due to the coronavirus pandemic, let's keep the spirit of La Tomatina alive…..and let's look forward to the festivity next year….with even higher spirits and happiness.

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