Battle of the Oranges
Every year the people in Ivrea, Italy, are wrapped up the “Battaglia delle Arance” (Battle of the Oranges), the traditional end of the city’s Carnival celebrations and the nation’s largest fruit fight. Ivrea is a town near Turin region of northwestern Italy. The messy three-day battle uses up more than 550,000 pounds of oranges. The festive battle scene stems from a revolt against an unpopular lord of Ivrea some 800 years ago. According to legend, sometime around the year 1200, the lord of Ivrea tried to force his romantic attentions on a local miller’s daughter (known as Violetta) on the eve of her wedding to someone else. The bride-to-be did not take kindly to the lord’s actions. Instead of submitting to his advances, Violetta killed him. The townspeople, fed up with years of oppression, rallied around the miller’s daughter, defeated the lord’s soldiers, and then stormed and burned the lord’s palace. The people of Ivrea began celebrating their liberation with an annual event that was eventually tied to the end of carnival. La Mugnaia (the miller’s daughter) Violetta, (pictured) played by a local woman dressed in red and white, oversees the activities, hands out sweets to children, and throws flowers to admirers.
As seen in the videos below, in the festival a horse-drawn cart loaded with the lord’s aranceri (orange throwers) runs the gauntlet of Ivrea’s streets the three days of the festival. The lord’s aranceri, protected in plastic “suits of armor,” are pummeled with oranges as they navigate the town streets—but they too throw oranges, and the entire scene is soon one of citrus carnage. For the battle, groups are organized by wearing a color and uniform, with team names including “Team Picche” and “Team Morte.” Groups of people on horse-drawn carts riding through town act as the tyrant’s troops while the orange throwers, are on foot throwing oranges at the people on the carts, signifying liberators from their ruler. Teams of orange throwers on foot defend different parts of the town, and each is identified by medieval uniforms and even coats of arms. Nets protect local store fronts and non-participants from wayward citrus fruit missiles. The oranges are the remnants and rejects of the winter harvest. This is the first year the battle is back. Due to Covid lockdown, the Battle of the Oranges hasn’t happened since 2020. The first day of this year’s Battle of the Oranges had 19,800 tickets sold and a total of 30,000 participants. Then the cleanup starts as you can see in the picture.
Orange you glad you asked
A woman asked me if I’d care for an orange?
I said, “If it really needed me.”
What do you call an orange that spent too much time in the sun?
A tangerine
My girlfriend always gets mad when I mess with her red wine, so I added some Sprite and oranges to it and now…
She’s more sangria then ever!
I have found that I have been happier since I switched from coffee to orange juice.
My Dr. explained that it’s the vitamin C and natural sugars, but I really think it’s the vodka.
I went on a date with a beautiful Italian.
We had a great conversation until we held hands…then she was speechless.
July 28th Birthdays
1999 – Victoria Baldesarra, 1985 – Tynisha Keli, 1972 – Elizabeth Berkley, 1986 – Alexandra Chando
1945 – Jim Davis, 1987 – Nolan Gerard Funk, 1993 – Spencer Boldman, 1973 – Scott Bloom