Like every year (barring 2020 due to the pandemic), this year, too, the last Wednesday of August (31st in 2022) saw the Spanish town of Bunol hold La Tomatina, the raucous festival where thousands congregate to throw tomatoes at each other. The tomatine version of Holi has been held since 1945, when a tomato-pelting battle apparently broke out after a scuffle. Because of its secular (read: non-religious) nature, it was banned by dictator Francisco Franco in the 1950s. But, today, it’s unbridled fun and a tourist draw from all over the world.
While Indians are familiar with the festival via the Zoya Akhtar 2011 buddy movie, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, the same year of its release, La Tomatina events were cancelled in Bengaluru and Mysore. Because – quite understandably – some people were aghast at the idea of truckloads of tomatoes going to waste to fuel some people’s idea of (imported) fun. Fair point. Not to escalate matters to a diplomatic level, but someone could suggest on a platform like the UN for Bunol to use something else than the red berry. Like red gulal.