Battle Of The Oranges Research Paper
The Battle of the Oranges as Performance
The Battle of the Oranges is a festival happening in February or March each year in the Northern Italian city of Ivrea. The climax of the festival is the tradition of throwing oranges between organized groups of locals and tourists. It is the largest food fight in Italy and involves over 3,000 revelers from around the world. This festival, or ritual, or spectacle, or play, involves elements of performance because of its convention, context, usage, and tradition. (Schechner, 38) Drawing from my own experience traveling in Italy and spectating the Battle of the Oranges in February 2010, in this paper I will examine the structure of the Battle as performance, including its space, process, performers, props and costuming, etc. More importantly, I will explore its history to discuss what it commemorates and accomplishes for individual’s and the town’s demand of life.
Structure of the Battle
The core celebration of Ivrea’s …show more content…
Carnival is based on the locally famous Battle of the Oranges. It involves around 3,000 revelers on foot and in carts drawn by decorated horses and lasts for three days, after which everyone is covered in pulp and orange juice, and the streets are slippery with squashed orange peel and smelling like boiling orange juice. Townspeople are divided into 9 combat teams, who throw oranges at each other with considerable, almost-real-life violence. (Garwood, 251) The Battle lasts during the traditional carnival days: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in February and ends on the night of "Fat Tuesday," otherwise known as Mardi Gras.
The orange throwers are armed with endless crates of Sicilian and Calabrian oranges, and their aim is to wage repeated battles with any of the horse-drawn carts that pull into their respective piazzas. Inside each cart, there are locals playing the roles of this ritual – six people designated as castle defenders, outfitted in helmets and pads like guards; the defenders volunteer for the role and sometimes serve on one side one year and the other side another.
There are a handful of routes that are allowed for spectators. The first is to hide behind the nets that are draped around the buildings, which is by far the safest choice. For the more adventurous spectator like me, we joined the crowd on the battlefield, however kept at distance. Red hats are sold to tourists to signify that we are part of the revolutionaries and will not be directly thrown at. (Garwood, 254) Some big rogue oranges that have missed their targets would be on a trajectory right towards the middle of the tourist crowd. Despite what one may expect of the glamorously armored "palace guards," they are usually not the ones that the participants have to be wary of when spectating, but the throwers on the ground who are attempting to hit back at the guards, looking like animals fighting back with nothing more than their basic instinct and desire for survival. This large-scale, extravagant cultural production with striking visual imagery and dramatic action observed by many spectators releases participants’ inner violence. (Manning, 291)
The Battle as Ritual, Spectacle, and Play
The Battle is repeated every year, which represent an important character of festivals and rituals. In every Battle, even when we think we are being spontaneous and original as we improvise in the fight, most of what we do and utter has been done and said before, as most improvisations consist of arranging and moving through known materials. As a ritual, the Battle is a collective memory encoded into action to help people deal the desires that trouble, exceed, or violate the norms of daily life. Its performance brought into being the relationship of the guards and the fighters to the authority and the oppressed in the past. (Rappaport, 252) However, the Battle is not the “rites of passage” that transform people permanently, but a temporary “second reality” separate from ordinary life. (Schechner, 52) At dusk, as the fighting slowly ebbed, and visitors and participants alike trudged away through the pulpy mass that covered the streets, to eat or rest up for the next day and return to their normal routine of life. The second reality created by the Battle is one where people can become selves other than their daily selves, and communicating differently than everyday frames which focus attention on subsistence and routine. (Stoeltje, 267)
For us tourists who joined the Battle, the event was more than a ritual presentation because it is highly interactive and participatory like a “Play.” Play is allied with power, domination, and indulging unconstrained desires displayed through the role-playing of authoritative identities as well as the improvising of specific battle acts. (Schechner, 106) On the other hand, compared to the traditional definition of rituals, play is “looser, more permissive”(Schechner, 89) and not as “rigid and culture-bound.” (Schechner, 91) The improvisation of the throwers and spontaneous eruption of emotions or actions from the spectators are not limited in any way besides personal concern for injury; the concept of a “Battle” is universally understood and allows for many forms of play, for example, sometimes playing is anti-structural, with the main fun being how one can get around the rules or subvert them by starting a “battle” with other locals they know or random spectators, which may not be tolerated by legal and ethical standards in ordinary daily life. This is consistent with the modern Italian culture I have observed throughout my journey in Italy – the town was open-minded, joyful and lively, characters expressing a similar vibrant energy level as the Battle, although they do not identify with the aggression.
Unlike the Tomato Battle “La Tomatina” in Spain, the Battle of the Oranges is a more intense play with distinct martial connotation and element of competition. The Battle is a cross between food fight and urban warfare, a dramatist form to “resolve conflicts or to provide solutions” as performance. (Stoeltje, 265) This is partly because oranges are distinctly harder projectiles than tomatoes, so participants are always prepared for some bruises or even injury, although there are first aid tents on location to insure the safety of those attending. At the end of the carnival, awards are handed out to the top performing teams (those in carts) by judges who patrol the piazzas and the defenders themselves. While there is pride in winning, what the Battle is really about is still a fun play and a festive celebration.
The Battle’s Lost Meaning and Sociopolitical Significance
The Battle 's origins are somewhat unclear. It is not a secular ritual associated with much religious context. A popular account has it that it commemorates the defiance against the city 's tyrant in the 12th or 13th century. This tyrant attempted to rape a young commoner, often specified as a miller 's daughter named Violetta, on the eve of her wedding. This practice of noblemen claiming a right to enjoy a betrothed woman before her husband did was certainly not exclusive to that era and place. However, the tyrant’s plan backfired when the young woman instead decapitated the tyrant, after which the citizens, empowered by Violetta 's defiance, stormed the castle and burned it to the ground. (Garwood, 252)
The Battle as well as the carnival is rich in costumes, music, and symbolism, which attract tourism.
(Manning, 296) The oranges represent the head of the tyrant, the pulp and juice his blood. The performers dressing as guards riding in carts represent tyrant 's ranks. During the 19th-century French occupation of Italy the Carnival of Ivrea was modified to add representatives of the French army along on the carts. Another French element was that the story sounds like a Napoleonic-era romantic revision, in key with the revolutionary ideas of freedom and revolt that were circulating at the time. However most believe the festival is an uninterrupted tradition that goes back to the medieval times. The Battle dates back to the 19th century as playful clashes between the people on the street and spectators on the balconies, but its latest incarnation only emerged in the post-Second World War period. Since then, the citizens organized to remember their liberation with a simulation of the Battle each
year.
The choice of using “Orange” as weapon is very interesting and significant for the context of the Battle. Originally beans were thrown. Feudal lords gave pots of beans to the poor, who began throwing the beans back into the streets out of disrespect for such meager charity. Later, in the 19th century, apples and then oranges came to represent the tyrant’s chopped off head. The origin of the tradition to throw oranges is not well understood, particularly as oranges do not grow in the foothills of the Italian Alps and must be imported from Sicily. However because of its geographical and climate advantages, Italy became one of the biggest producer of oranges – 27% of all citrus production in Europe – therefore leftovers of the winter crop in southern Italy are brought to Ivrea every year. In 1994 an estimated 584,000 lbs of oranges were transported. This brilliant utilization of excess agricultural production reinforced the position of oranges as weapons in the Battle. (Garwood, 252)
The message from festival concerns the shared experience of the group and multiple interpretations on both a personal and collective level. (Stoeltje, 263) What the Battle accomplishes for individual is to free them from demands of daily life and take off steam in a second reality, while for groups it unites people from all backgrounds to make them feel at one with their comrades when social differences are set aside. For the culture of the town, remembrance of bravery, desire for freedom and autonomy, and rebel against oppression was carried on with the Battle. The event as performance presented many characteristics of festival, ritual, spectacle, and play. Although people do not entirely agree on the history behind the Battle, and the intention of fighting with oranges has changed with time, modern Ivrea is still indulged in the healthy level of violence, zeal of celebration, flying pulps and aroma of oranges, and the brave hearts who fought for freedom and equality.
References
Garwood, Duncan, Paula Hardy, and Alex Leviton. “Battaglia delle Arance: A Guide to the Orange Battle in Italy.” Italy. Melbourne, Australia: Lonely Planet Publications, Jan 2006.
Rappaport, Roy A. “Ritual.” Folklore, Cultural, Performances, and Popular Entertainments. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Schechner, Richard. Performance Studies: An Introduction. London, UK: Routledge, Feb 2013.
Stoeltje, Beverly J. “Festival.” Folklore, Cultural, Performances, and Popular Entertainments. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1992.
The Battle of the Oranges is a festival happening in February or March each year in the Northern Italian city of Ivrea. The climax of the festival is the tradition of throwing oranges between organized groups of locals and tourists. It is the largest food fight in Italy and involves over 3,000 revelers from around the world. This festival, or ritual, or spectacle, or play, involves elements of performance because of its convention, context, usage, and tradition. (Schechner, 38) Drawing from my own experience traveling in Italy and spectating the Battle of the Oranges in February 2010, in this paper I will examine the structure of the Battle as performance, including its space, process, performers, props and costuming, etc. More importantly, I will explore its history to discuss what it commemorates and accomplishes for individual’s and the town’s demand of life.
Structure of the Battle
The core celebration of Ivrea’s …show more content…
Carnival is based on the locally famous Battle of the Oranges. It involves around 3,000 revelers on foot and in carts drawn by decorated horses and lasts for three days, after which everyone is covered in pulp and orange juice, and the streets are slippery with squashed orange peel and smelling like boiling orange juice. Townspeople are divided into 9 combat teams, who throw oranges at each other with considerable, almost-real-life violence. (Garwood, 251) The Battle lasts during the traditional carnival days: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in February and ends on the night of "Fat Tuesday," otherwise known as Mardi Gras.
The orange throwers are armed with endless crates of Sicilian and Calabrian oranges, and their aim is to wage repeated battles with any of the horse-drawn carts that pull into their respective piazzas. Inside each cart, there are locals playing the roles of this ritual – six people designated as castle defenders, outfitted in helmets and pads like guards; the defenders volunteer for the role and sometimes serve on one side one year and the other side another.
There are a handful of routes that are allowed for spectators. The first is to hide behind the nets that are draped around the buildings, which is by far the safest choice. For the more adventurous spectator like me, we joined the crowd on the battlefield, however kept at distance. Red hats are sold to tourists to signify that we are part of the revolutionaries and will not be directly thrown at. (Garwood, 254) Some big rogue oranges that have missed their targets would be on a trajectory right towards the middle of the tourist crowd. Despite what one may expect of the glamorously armored "palace guards," they are usually not the ones that the participants have to be wary of when spectating, but the throwers on the ground who are attempting to hit back at the guards, looking like animals fighting back with nothing more than their basic instinct and desire for survival. This large-scale, extravagant cultural production with striking visual imagery and dramatic action observed by many spectators releases participants’ inner violence. (Manning, 291)
The Battle as Ritual, Spectacle, and Play
The Battle is repeated every year, which represent an important character of festivals and rituals. In every Battle, even when we think we are being spontaneous and original as we improvise in the fight, most of what we do and utter has been done and said before, as most improvisations consist of arranging and moving through known materials. As a ritual, the Battle is a collective memory encoded into action to help people deal the desires that trouble, exceed, or violate the norms of daily life. Its performance brought into being the relationship of the guards and the fighters to the authority and the oppressed in the past. (Rappaport, 252) However, the Battle is not the “rites of passage” that transform people permanently, but a temporary “second reality” separate from ordinary life. (Schechner, 52) At dusk, as the fighting slowly ebbed, and visitors and participants alike trudged away through the pulpy mass that covered the streets, to eat or rest up for the next day and return to their normal routine of life. The second reality created by the Battle is one where people can become selves other than their daily selves, and communicating differently than everyday frames which focus attention on subsistence and routine. (Stoeltje, 267)
For us tourists who joined the Battle, the event was more than a ritual presentation because it is highly interactive and participatory like a “Play.” Play is allied with power, domination, and indulging unconstrained desires displayed through the role-playing of authoritative identities as well as the improvising of specific battle acts. (Schechner, 106) On the other hand, compared to the traditional definition of rituals, play is “looser, more permissive”(Schechner, 89) and not as “rigid and culture-bound.” (Schechner, 91) The improvisation of the throwers and spontaneous eruption of emotions or actions from the spectators are not limited in any way besides personal concern for injury; the concept of a “Battle” is universally understood and allows for many forms of play, for example, sometimes playing is anti-structural, with the main fun being how one can get around the rules or subvert them by starting a “battle” with other locals they know or random spectators, which may not be tolerated by legal and ethical standards in ordinary daily life. This is consistent with the modern Italian culture I have observed throughout my journey in Italy – the town was open-minded, joyful and lively, characters expressing a similar vibrant energy level as the Battle, although they do not identify with the aggression.
Unlike the Tomato Battle “La Tomatina” in Spain, the Battle of the Oranges is a more intense play with distinct martial connotation and element of competition. The Battle is a cross between food fight and urban warfare, a dramatist form to “resolve conflicts or to provide solutions” as performance. (Stoeltje, 265) This is partly because oranges are distinctly harder projectiles than tomatoes, so participants are always prepared for some bruises or even injury, although there are first aid tents on location to insure the safety of those attending. At the end of the carnival, awards are handed out to the top performing teams (those in carts) by judges who patrol the piazzas and the defenders themselves. While there is pride in winning, what the Battle is really about is still a fun play and a festive celebration.
The Battle’s Lost Meaning and Sociopolitical Significance
The Battle 's origins are somewhat unclear. It is not a secular ritual associated with much religious context. A popular account has it that it commemorates the defiance against the city 's tyrant in the 12th or 13th century. This tyrant attempted to rape a young commoner, often specified as a miller 's daughter named Violetta, on the eve of her wedding. This practice of noblemen claiming a right to enjoy a betrothed woman before her husband did was certainly not exclusive to that era and place. However, the tyrant’s plan backfired when the young woman instead decapitated the tyrant, after which the citizens, empowered by Violetta 's defiance, stormed the castle and burned it to the ground. (Garwood, 252)
The Battle as well as the carnival is rich in costumes, music, and symbolism, which attract tourism.
(Manning, 296) The oranges represent the head of the tyrant, the pulp and juice his blood. The performers dressing as guards riding in carts represent tyrant 's ranks. During the 19th-century French occupation of Italy the Carnival of Ivrea was modified to add representatives of the French army along on the carts. Another French element was that the story sounds like a Napoleonic-era romantic revision, in key with the revolutionary ideas of freedom and revolt that were circulating at the time. However most believe the festival is an uninterrupted tradition that goes back to the medieval times. The Battle dates back to the 19th century as playful clashes between the people on the street and spectators on the balconies, but its latest incarnation only emerged in the post-Second World War period. Since then, the citizens organized to remember their liberation with a simulation of the Battle each
year.
The choice of using “Orange” as weapon is very interesting and significant for the context of the Battle. Originally beans were thrown. Feudal lords gave pots of beans to the poor, who began throwing the beans back into the streets out of disrespect for such meager charity. Later, in the 19th century, apples and then oranges came to represent the tyrant’s chopped off head. The origin of the tradition to throw oranges is not well understood, particularly as oranges do not grow in the foothills of the Italian Alps and must be imported from Sicily. However because of its geographical and climate advantages, Italy became one of the biggest producer of oranges – 27% of all citrus production in Europe – therefore leftovers of the winter crop in southern Italy are brought to Ivrea every year. In 1994 an estimated 584,000 lbs of oranges were transported. This brilliant utilization of excess agricultural production reinforced the position of oranges as weapons in the Battle. (Garwood, 252)
The message from festival concerns the shared experience of the group and multiple interpretations on both a personal and collective level. (Stoeltje, 263) What the Battle accomplishes for individual is to free them from demands of daily life and take off steam in a second reality, while for groups it unites people from all backgrounds to make them feel at one with their comrades when social differences are set aside. For the culture of the town, remembrance of bravery, desire for freedom and autonomy, and rebel against oppression was carried on with the Battle. The event as performance presented many characteristics of festival, ritual, spectacle, and play. Although people do not entirely agree on the history behind the Battle, and the intention of fighting with oranges has changed with time, modern Ivrea is still indulged in the healthy level of violence, zeal of celebration, flying pulps and aroma of oranges, and the brave hearts who fought for freedom and equality.
References
Garwood, Duncan, Paula Hardy, and Alex Leviton. “Battaglia delle Arance: A Guide to the Orange Battle in Italy.” Italy. Melbourne, Australia: Lonely Planet Publications, Jan 2006.
Rappaport, Roy A. “Ritual.” Folklore, Cultural, Performances, and Popular Entertainments. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Schechner, Richard. Performance Studies: An Introduction. London, UK: Routledge, Feb 2013.
Stoeltje, Beverly J. “Festival.” Folklore, Cultural, Performances, and Popular Entertainments. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1992.