storico carnevale di ivrea

Published Jan. 11, 2009 at 4:55 p.m.
Next month, on the 21st February, sees the two hundred and second Historic Carnival of Ivrea, (Storico Carnevale di Ivrea), in Piedmont.

The Carnival is famous for an exciting orange throwing contest and has its roots in the middle ages when beans were used in this battle. Apparently twice a year the feudal lord gave a pot of beans to the poor families who, out of disrespect, threw them into the streets. The same pulses were also used...at carnival as fun ammunition to be thrown at the backs of unsuspecting...adversaries. In the last century, girls started...to throw some oranges from their balconies onto the parade carriages together...with confetti, lupins and other flowers.

...The targets of these were the boys by whom the girls wanted to be noticed. From the carriages the boys started to answer...in kind and little by little, the gesture of homage became first a duel and then...a real fight between the throwers on the balconies and those in the streets.

Today the contest is still enacted in the main piazzas of the town where teams in carriages (symbolising the tyrant’s guards) battle against the orange thrower teams on foot (the rebellious commoners) which consist of hundreds of throwers. This is the most spectacular event of the festivities representing...the fight for liberty, the symbol of the Ivrea Carnival.

So come on get your oranges ready and probably a wet suit as well because its going to be quite a mess!
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