Tomatina turns 70, gets a Google doodle
26 August 2015 was celebrated as the 70th anniversary of La Tomatina, the Spanish festival where tomato-throwing attracted thousands of people to the town of Buñol, Spain. To commemorate this 70th anniversary of Spain's iconic festival, Google dedicated an exclusive tomato-throwing doodle to it. Over the recent years, Spain's Tomatina festival has become a highly popular tourist event for people all over the world.
The Tomatina legend is most likely a myth, and Wall Street was the first to write about it in 1995 (most likely based on conjecture). Its beginning was a religious one, to honor San Luis Bertran, Bunol's patron saint. In the procession of 1944 or 1945, a tussle ensued en-route and tomatoes were hurled and with its repetition every year, it became a ritual.
"Colorado-Texas Tomato War" was started in 1982 in the United States, Twin Lakes, Colorado, where residents from Texas and Colorado are pitted against each other in a food fight every September. Since June 2004, every year the Columbian town of Sutamarchán has hosted a tomato fight event. Costa Rica and Chile too have annual La Tomatina - inspired events every year.
Though there are a number of Tomatina resembling festivals such as Songkran in Thailand, Boryeong Mud Festival in Korea, Garma Festival in Australia; the one that most resembles Tomatina is the Carnival of Ivrea in Italy where people throw oranges at each other.
In August 2014, Vadodra's district administration charged a fine of Rs.6.5 lakhs from the organisers who conducted a Tomatina inspired tomato throwing event on Friendship's Day. Tomato was being sold at Rs.90 per kg and its apparent misuse had irked the government. Moreover, the organisers had not paid the entertainment tax nor taken prior permissions for the event.
Dutch hurled tomatoes at each other in central Amsterdam protesting against the Russian embargo on buying fruit and vegetables from Europe. Inspired by the La Tomatina' tomato fight in Spain, the event was to show solidarity with the Dutch farmers. Moscow decided to boycott agricultural products from west in retaliation to the EU and US sanctions due to its role in the Ukraine crisis.
On La Tomatina's 70th anniversary, 145,000 kilograms of tomatoes were to be thrown breaking its own record.
