Looking for something crazy to do in March, then join the festive activities of Carnevale di Ivrea and join in the Battaglia delle Arance!
The Carnivale di Ivrea is a unique Italian event held in the city of Irvea. Ivrea is on the Via Francigena. The annual carnival is a re-enactment of the city’s liberation from tyranny dating back to medieval times.
A baron who starved the city was driven away thanks to a miller’s daughter who rebelled against the “jus primae noctis” and roused the people to revolt.
The heroine of the modern day Carnival is the Miller’s daughter known as Mugnaia. At her side is the Generale who since the early 1800s has had the task of assuring the smooth running of the event.
Then there is the famous, spectacular battaglia delle arance or Orange Battle
The tradition of throwing oranges has its roots in the mid 1800s. In medieval times, the battle was originally fought using beans. In these times, the feudal lord gave a terracotta pot of beans to poor families who threw the beans onto the streets to show their contempt.
Beans were also used as ammunition at carnival time, to be thrown for fun at unsuspecting enemies. Between the 1930s and 1960s, beans along with confetti, sugared almonds, lupin seeds and flowers were used too.
Young girls on balconies began to throw oranges at the floats in the carnival parade, to attract the attention of the young boys. From the floats, the boys returned fire as a form of “tit for tat.” This gesture turned into a duel, then into a real battle of orange between those throwing from the balconies and the others from the street.
Nowadays the battle takes place in the main squares of the city between teams on carts (symbolizing the tyrant’s guards) and hundreds of orange-throwers on foot (the rebellious commoners).
There can be no doubt that this is the most spectacular moment of the whole event, clearly depicting the fight for freedom, the symbol of Ivrea Carnival. Throwing oranges is also the event in which most people can be involved: anyone can do it by becoming a member of one of the nine-foot teams or of one of the groups throwing from a cart.
Comments