Europe has some of the most exciting and hilarious traditions! Pamplona, Spain has the famous Bull Run, Coppers Hill, Gloucester has the annual Cheese Roll and Ivrea, Italy has just wrapped up its four day Orange Battle.
Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. The citizens dress up in medieval costumes and viciously pelt one another with oranges leading up to pancake Tuesday every year. (For those who don’t know, pancake Tuesday is the day to scarf yourself with pancakes before giving up something you love for lent for 40 days).
How did this odd tradition start?
Legend says it started from an old story about a woman named Violetta, a miller’s daughter in 12th century Ivrea. Her life was pretty swell until one day, the town’s evil lord asked her to marry him. He has a reputation of making the citizens miserable, so she wasn’t exactly thrilled about the proposal.
So, naturally, she chopped off his head, thus saving the town from his horrible rule! Every year after that, the town had a carnival to celebrate their freedom. There was a huge parade; confetti was thrown over the town, everyone dressed up in their best outfits and food was plentiful. However, this all changed in the 1930s, when girls began adding ripe, juicy oranges to the confetti in an attempt to draw attention to them, and thus a new tradition was born!
Nowadays, the festival is still a huge success. People travel from all over Italy to participate in the Orange Battle. But, we here at The Mag enjoy our usual annual tradition: not throwing fruit at one another.