THE BATTLE OF ORANGE: Annual Orange Festival in full bloom in Italy (Photos+Video)

Once again Italy is in the limelight with its excellent food fighting carnival famously known as 'The Battle of Orange' blooming in.

The three-day fight takes place every year in the month of February in the small northern Italian city of Ivrea.

With as many as 57,000 crates of oranges ( 400 tons worth of oranges ) brought to the city to throw at each other in the battle,the carnival is no doubt a very unique one.

The famous festival features group of men dressed up as Middle Age kings' guards riding in a horse-drawn carriage while pelting 'foot soldiers' with oranges. There are nine teams of commoners on ground who retaliate withe same force using different fruits.

The festival's origin is not very clear but has evolved after the 19th century incident when rebellious commoners threw away food the feudal lord had given them.

Thousands of spectators and participants are attracted to this city.All the spectators have to wear a red hat so that they do not get pelted with oranges but sometimes they do get struck by the flying oranges.Previous festivals had used apples and beans too.

First aid tents are also provided by the authorities so that if someone either participant or a spectator gets injured,he is treated immediately.Although no one has ever been seriously injured in the carnival.

The festival concludes with a huge procession, and a fiery display and then in the end the mess of splattered oranges is cleaned up by a team of 100 workers.

But for me,the carnival is a sheer waste of money and fruits.Just imagine how many people die daily due to hunger and thirst.Instead of throwing the fruits on each other what if they are put to use for better purposes.Enjoyment and fun is one thing but saving lives is a better option i think!