西班牙蕃茄節資料(英文)

Introduction
La Tomatina is a famous festival. It held on a Wednesday in the end of August. Tens thousands of people join a tomato fight. More than one hundred metric tons of tomatoes are thrown in the streets. The tomatoes come from Extremadura because they are cheap.

History
The tomato fight is a tradition in Buñol since 1944 or 1945. No one is knows how this event originated(起源). Whatever happened to begin the tradition, it was enjoyed so much that it was repeated the next year, and the year after that, and so on.

Activities
There are music, parades, dancing, and fireworks. There is a cooking contest(比賽)on the night before La Tomatina.

The celebration
At around 11 a.m., a ham is placed upon a stick wiped(塗上) with grease(油脂). People will climb on one another to pull down the ham.
After the ham is pulled down, the tomato fight begins!
The tomato fight is for everyone. People have to wear safety goggles(眼罩) and gloves. They must squish the tomatoes before throwing them.When the fight ends, people will go to the Buñol River to wash themselves.

Although the Tomato Festival in Bunol, Valencia has no religious connections and was only started in 1945 this festival along with the Pamplona Bull Run is one of Spains most famous and well known festival.

The Festival La Tomatina is one huge tomato fight and each year around 30,000 people turn up to take part.

The festival starts early in the morning when everyone turns up and dines on a breakfast of Chorizo and Rose wine.

By 11am in the morning everyones inhibitions are loosened and five huge tomato filled rockets are sent into the skies above the town.

From this point it is every man, woman and child for themselves as the event turns into a tomato slinging war. Everyone is supposed to adhere to a small number of rules: You must squash the tomato before throwing it and you are not allowed to throw anything other than tomatoes.

Each year the Tomatoes throwing Festival last fro around two hours and in total some 125,000 kilos of tomatoes are squashed and thrown.

The festival also brings out a good community spirit where everyone involves helps out with the cleaning up and hosing down.

You can easily get to Bunol by flying into Valencia Airport. If you are flying to Valencia from the UK then you can find well priced flights and deals through Easyjet.

La Tomatina Festival, The Tomato throwing Festival, is held on the last Saturday of August every year and has been a regular event since 1945.