{"id":712,"date":"2013-02-15T16:14:22","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T14:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/?p=712"},"modified":"2014-02-24T16:36:57","modified_gmt":"2014-02-24T15:36:57","slug":"ivrea-and-the-orange-carnival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/ivrea-and-the-orange-carnival\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivrea and the orange carnival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ivrea <\/strong>\u2013 a small town in Piedmont, in the past the most import computing center in Italy, today it is looking for an idea to restore prosperity. Usually quite, rather sleepy place, explodes with emotions during the last days of carnival. Every year from Sunday to Fat Tuesday an unique battle of the oranges<\/strong> (battaglia delle arance<\/em>) takes place.<\/p>\n

\"Ivrea,<\/a>
the battle of the oranges<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Ivrea,<\/a>
the battle of the oranges – Scacchi and Scorpioni d’Arduino teams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ivrea,<\/a>
one of the carts during the battle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Feudal lord\u2019s guards on horse- pulled trucks (aranceri sui carri da getto<\/em><\/strong>), loads of rebelled people against hated tyrant – aranceri a piedi<\/em><\/strong> (orange throwers on foot) and omnipresent oranges: in air, on the ground, in one piece, smashed and served as freshly squeezed juice\u2026Not to mention about an amazing mix of good fun and aggression. It\u2019s how I can describe just in few words how a big fight using each year hundreds of tons of citruses.<\/p>\n

\"Ivrea,<\/a>
scary looking aranceri sui carri da getto in special masks…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ivrea,<\/a>
did one of aranceri encourage to fight?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ivrea,<\/a>
aranceri on the carriage before the fight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The carnival of Ivrea is a kind of show narrating a real revolt that happened in Middle Ages, enriched with some elements of legend. According to the local myth a beautiful miller\u2019s daughter (La Mugnaia<\/strong>) named Violetta was taken by force to the Baron\u2019s castle. When hated tyrant claimed the right of the first night, newlywed woman got him drunk and killed him. In that time her appearance in the castle window with his head in hand stared the rebellion and nowadays in the evening before the battle the official presentation of Violetta (whose identity is kept secret till the end) on the balcony of the Town Hall building kicks off celebrations.<\/p>\n

\"Ivrea,<\/a>
la Mugnaia 2013 – Ileana Famiglietti Galeano (an attorney from Milan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ivrea,<\/a>
the carriage with miller\u2019s daughter during the parade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

La Mugnaia<\/strong> became local heroine and she is a real star in a colorful procession (il Corteo Storico<\/strong><\/em>) marching on the town\u2019s streets simultaneously to the battle. The miller\u2019s daughter, in golden carriage, dressed in a traditional white wedding dress salutes cheering crowd, throws candies and small mimosa branches. The General<\/strong> – another important character of the celebrations, Napoleonic authority representative, supported by general staff – assures a smooth running of the event. In the parade can\u2019t be missed the orchestra<\/strong>, kids dressed in traditional renaissance costumes (Abba\u2019<\/em><\/strong>) or the representatives of town authority, for example.<\/p>\n

\"Ivrea,<\/a>
la Mugnaia throwing mimoses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ivrea,<\/a>
the General<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The performance is watched by the sea of red heads. Spectators, passers-by, tourists and town residents \u2013 everybody is wearing a characteristic, similar to a big sock, Phrygian cap (berretto frigio<\/em><\/strong>) on head. In Europe during the French Revolution it became the icon of freedom, and today it protects against the cold and oranges \u2013 people with a red hat on head can\u2019t be attacked by aranceri<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Ivrea,<\/a>
an entrance to Ivrea during carnival<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ivrea,<\/a>
horses-pulled cart on Ivrea street<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The history of the carnival of Ivrea dates back to the beginning of 19th century, to 1808 precisely. In that time Piedmont was under Napoleon occupation and that\u2019s why in procession there are such figures like the General or representatives of French army. The tradition of miller\u2019s daughter started in 1858, and the battle of the oranges, in an organized form, born in the mid 20th century. And despite a big risk of being injured in a battle and the cost of privilege to throw oranges (aranceri<\/em> on foot, for example, needed to pay about 90-100 \u20ac for 3 days), it attracts every year townspeople to take part in a common fight and tourists as curious spectators.<\/p>\n

\"Ivrea,<\/a>
a crowd on streets during carnival<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ivrea,<\/a>
ponte vecchio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For a dessert link to a short movie I found on YouTube. It shows very well atmosphere of the event:<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=orJgH1UeZpI<\/a><\/p>\n

And below a traditional song telling the history we can be a witness during last three days of this amazing carnival (in Italian):<\/p>\n

Una volta anticamente \/ egli \u00e8 certo che un Barone<\/p>\n

Ci trattava duramente \/ Con la corda e col bastone;<\/p>\n

D’in sull’alto Castellazzo, \/Dove avea covile e possa,<\/p>\n

Sghignazzando a mo’ di pazzo \/Ci mangiava polpa ed ossa.<\/p>\n

Ma la figlia d’un mugnaro \/ Gli ha insegnato la creanza,<\/p>\n

Che rapita all’uom pi\u00f9 caro \/Volea farne la sua ganza.<\/p>\n

Ma quell’altra prese impegno \/Di trattarlo a tu per tu:<\/p>\n

Quello \u00e8 stato il nostro segno, \/E il Castello non c’\u00e8 pi\u00f9.<\/p>\n

E sui ruderi ammucchiati, \/Dame e prodi in bella mostra,<\/p>\n

Sotto scarli inalberati \/Noi veniamo a far la giostra:<\/p>\n

Su quei greppi, tra quei muri, \/Che alla belva furon tana,<\/p>\n

Suonan pifferi e tamburi \/La vittoria popolana.<\/p>\n

Non v’\u00e8 povero quartiere \/Che non sfoggi un po’ di gale,<\/p>\n

Che non canti con piacere \/La Canzon del Carnevale.<\/p>\n

Con la Sposa e col Garzone \/Che ad Abb\u00e0 prescelto fu,<\/p>\n

Va cantando ogni rione: \/Il Castello non c’\u00e8 pi\u00f9.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ivrea \u2013 a small town in Piedmont, in the past the most import computing center in Italy, today it is looking for an idea to restore prosperity. Usually quite, rather sleepy place, explodes with emotions during the last days of carnival. Every year from Sunday to Fat Tuesday an unique battle of the oranges (battaglia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,38],"tags":[39,40,41],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carnevale-di-ivrea","category-ivrea","tag-battle-of-the-oranges","tag-carnival-of-ivrea","tag-ivrea-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1741,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions\/1741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belpiemonte.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}