Carnival: Battle of the Oranges

The medieval town of Ivrea, near Turin in Piedmont,Italy comes alive in February. Its historic carnival commemorates the rebellion of the people against a tyrant who ruled the town in the middle ages. It gives a new twist to Italian cuisine by culminating in the symbolic – and messy – Battles of the Oranges.The one and only Orange Battle in .

During the carnival the streets are lit up and filled with the scent of oranges. And regional specialities are served in the streets – particularly fagioli grassi (fat beans). These are enormous pots of beans, boiled with sausages and pork rind. They’re served free. Other speciality dishes include cod with polenta, and delicious carnival pastries. Italian wines on offer include white Erbaluce, sparkling Barbera and sweet Passito di Caluso.

The Carnival of Ivrea draws on legends of the 12th-century. It’s said to be the only Carnival in the world that has a real plot and tells a story featuring idealised and historic figures – rather than carnival characters.

The Carnival of Ivrea mixes fact and fiction. It had its origins in the middle ages, when a tyrant Raineri di Biandrate became lord of the town. In 1194 the people, rebelled against his cruel regime – and destroyed his castle. He was later replaced by another tyrant, the Marquis Gugliemo of Monferrato – and the people rebelled again. Over the years they’ve become merged into one ‘baddy’ and their downfall is celebrated in the Battles of the Oranges – which take place in the town squares. Those who throw oranges from carts symbolise the tyrants’ guards – and those on foot, the rebels.

The story goes that Raineri gave himself the right to sleep with any bride on her wedding night: jus primae noctis. Legend has it that he got his punishment when Violetta, the beautiful daughter of a miller, refused to sleep with him, cut off his head with a dagger and showed it to the people gathered beneath the castle walls. She’s known as the Mugnaia – and is the heroine of the carnival.

So why oranges? Well, originally the people threw beans. However, around the 19th century girls began to throw oranges – a precious fruit that isn’t native to Ivrea – at boys they fancied. And if the boys liked them – they threw an orange back. Today it’s a contest, with rules and town teams.

All the different districts of the town used to celebrate the Carnival of Ivrea separately – and the mock battles sometimes turned violent. So when Napoleon took control of that part of Italy in 1808 he declared there could only be one event – and the organisers had to wear Napoleonic army uniform. The French influence is celebrated in the carnival today – and if you want to avoid the flying oranges you wear a red hat, like a French revolutionary.

The carnival begins in January but starts in earnest early in February every year. A torch-light procession leaves the Town Hall with the Mugnaia and orange-throwers. After that the battles commence in the town squares. The main battles are on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of February – with the final battle on 5th February.

30 July : Holidays and observances

Vanuatu – Independence Day

Vanuatu , officially the Republic of Vanuatu , is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago is some 1,750 km (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 500 km (310 mi) north-east of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and south of the Solomon Islands. The archipelago is of volcanic origin.

Vanuatu was first inhabited by Melanesian people. Europeans began to settle in the area in the late 18th century. In the 1880s France and the United Kingdom claimed parts of the country and in 1906 they agreed on a framework for jointly managing the archipelago through a British-French Condominium as the New Hebrides. An independence movement was established in the 1970s, and the Republic of Vanuatu was created in 1980.

28 July : Holidays and observances

Peru – Independence Day

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.

Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico civilization, one of the oldest in the world, and to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty, which included most of its South American colonies. After achieving independence in 1821, Peru has undergone periods of political unrest and fiscal crisis as well as periods of stability and economic upswing.

Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. Its geography varies from the arid plains of the Pacific coast to the peaks of the Andes mountains and the tropical forests of the Amazon Basin. It is a developing country with a medium Human Development Index score and a poverty level around 40%. Its main economic activities include agriculture, fishing, mining, and manufacturing of products such as textiles.

The Peruvian population, estimated at 28 million, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Asians. The main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages. This mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine, literature, and music.

23 July : Holidays and observances

Egypt’s Revolution Day

22 July : Holidays and observances

Ratcatcher’s Day commemorates the Pied Piper of Hamelin is celebrated on the 22nd of July in the USA and Australia. It seems to be a holiday in English-speaking countries, based upon the date of the Pied Piper incident as reported in the Poem by Robert Browning.Ratcatcher’s Day is a holiday remembering Exterminators, similar to Secretary’s Day.

19 July : Holidays and observances

Burmese Martyrs’ Day is commemorated every year on July 19. On this day in 1947 at approximately 10:37am, Burma Standard Time, several of Burma’s independence leaders were gunned down by a group of armed men in uniform while they were holding a cabinet meeting at what was known as ‘The Secretariat’ in downtown Rangoon. The assassinations were planned by a rival political group, and the leader and alleged master-mind of that group Galon U Saw, together with the perpetrators, were tried and convicted by a special tribunal presided by U Kyaw Myint with two other Barristers-at-law, U Aung Thar Gyaw and U Si Bu. In a judgment given on December 30, 1947 the tribunal sentenced U Saw and a few others to death and the rest were given prison sentences. Appeals to the High Court of Burma by U Saw and his accomplices were rejected on March 8, 1948. In a judgment written by Supreme Court Justice U E Maung (1898-1977) on April 27, 1948 the Supreme Court (the highest court under the 1947 Constitution of the Union of Burma) refused leave to appeal against the original judgment.All the judgments of the tribunal, the High Court and the Supreme Court were written in English. The judgment of the tribunal can be read in “A Trial in Burma” by Dr Maung Maung (Martinus Njhoff, 1963) and the judgment of the High Court and Supreme Court can be read in the 1948 Burma Law Reports.

The President of Burma Sao Shwe Thaik refused to pardon or commute the sentences of most of those who were sentenced to death, and U Saw was hanged inside Rangoon’s Insein jail on May 8, 1948. A number of perpetrators met the same fate. Others, who had played relatively minor roles and were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, also spent several years in prison. The assassinated cabinet members were General Aung San, Thakin Mya, Dedoke U Ba Cho, Abdul Razak, U Ba Win (oldest brother of Aung San and father of the leader of the National League for Democracy government-in-exile Dr Sein Win), Mahn Ba Khaing and Saopha of Mong Pawng. Cabinet secretary U Ohn Maung and a bodyguard called Maung Htwe were also killed in the shooting. Many Burmese to this day believe that the British had a hand in the assassination plot one way or another; two British officers were also arrested at the time and one of them charged and convicted for supplying an agent of U Saw with arms and munitions enough to equip a small army, a large part of which was recovered from a lake next to U Saw’s house in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Soon after the assassinations, the British governor of Burma appointed Thakin Nu (later U Nu) to head an interim administration and when Burma became independent on January 4, 1948 Thakin Nu became the first Prime Minister of independent Burma. July 19 was designated a public holiday and to be known as Martyr’s Day in Burma/Myanmar.

Reading Festival 20-24 August 2008

Reading Festival
Now in its 20th year!

This year is special being festival’s 20th birthday and the starting line-up reflects that. Across the stages we have every new buzz band you have read about this year, every band you want to hear play across the twin sites and three headliners of such colossal size and importance they are probably visible from space. All exclusive performances, you won’t see our headliners on any other festival stage in England, or indeed the UK in the case of two of the three.

Away from the Main Stage expect some real surprises on the NME / Radio One Stage, the A to Z of punk, hardcore and ska that is the Lock Up Stage and the headliners of the future on the smaller stages. Last year was a secret gig by the Kaiser Chiefs at Leeds, the irresistible rise of The Enemy and The Pigeon Detectives on the NME/ Radio One Stage as both bands moved on to platinum album sales, a Kate Nash show on the Carling Stage that was packed to the rafters and three of the biggest bands in the world headlining the Main Stage. The Reading and Leeds Festival has always been the moment of the summer when bands rise to prominence and last year was no exception.Over 3 days, over 150 acts, this is the Reading and Leeds Festival, back again to make the summer worthwhile.

Dour Festival : Belgium

This summer we’ll celebrate the 20th Dour Festival. The event has been sold-out for the past 3 years and was even sold-out a few days early last summer. In 2007 the festival beat all its previous crowd records with a total of 144.000 kids over 4 days. Of those, more than 32 000 have slept in the camping site which the team was forced to open on Wednesday night. Indeed it was up to 23.000 festival-goers who arrived a day early! For the first time in its history the team had to turn away about 15.000 festivalgoers every day.

Dour has something for everyone

One of the strongest draws of Dour is without a doubt its programme. Every year at Dour you get a unique international bill (bands were coming from 28 different countries last year) that’s different, alternative, independent, ambitious and sharp with an accent on new discoveries. All that at a very low price that can’t be beaten.

Dour Festival is a meeting place for like-minded people

Since its beginning the Dour Festival has owed much of its appeal to its incredible atmosphere. A multi-cultural audience that shares a love for music and partying creates a fun vibe throughout the site. The Dour Festival has become the unmissable music event of the summer for thousands of kids across Europe.

A festival that listens to its audience

Last year we asked our audience to tell us their best and worst moments of the festival. Around 1200 of you took the time to get back to us. We’ve listened to your feedback and we’ll make sure to use them to offer you a festival that’s even closer to your expectations. We will send you regular updates on new improvements for the Dour 08

A festival with a conscience

The festival’ social agenda is not a sideshow anymore. People come to Dour to get informed as well thanks to our NGO village. This summer will be the 4th time the festival will welcome many social and political associations to inform the festivalgoers about NGO’s and what can be done to help the planet.

Dour Festival = More than 200 bands, 4 days, 6 stages

Like every summer the festival will be held on the 3rd weekend of July, by the spoil heaps of the old coal mining site ‘La Plaine de La Machine a Feu’. Dour the village is situated in the south of Belgium, by the French Border. For 4 days over 200 bands will play their tunes on 2 open-air stages and 4 marquees in front of an avid audience. This is the festival that never sleeps with non stop music from 12am until 5am the next day.

The 20th Dour Festival

The Dour festival is a unique concept that has already seduced 1.255.000 festival-goers across Europe. Why should we change a winning formulae now? What about an even better bill in an even better atmosphere?Would you miss that?

17 July : Holidays and observances

Gion Matsuri Festival, Japan

The Gion Matsuri is an annual festival that takes place in Kyoto and is said to be one of the most famous, if not the most famous, festival in Japan. It spans the entire month of July and is crowned by a beautiful parade, the Yama-boko Junkō on July 17.

Kyoto’s downtown area is reserved for pedestrian traffic on the three nights leading up to the massive parade. These nights are known as Yoiyama on July 16th, Yoiyoiyama on July 15th, and Yoiyoiyoiyama on July 14th. The streets are lined with night stalls selling food such as yakitori (barbecued chicken skewers), taiyaki, takoyaki, okonomiyaki, traditional Japanese sweets, and many other culinary delights. Many Kyoto girls dressed in yukata (summer kimono) walk around the area, carrying with them traditional purses and paper fans.

During the Yoiyama eves leading up to the parade, some private houses in the old kimono merchant district open their genkan, or entryways, to the public, exhibiting valuable family heirlooms; a customary event known as the Byōbu Matsuri, or the ‘Folding Screen Festival.’ This is a precious opportunity to visit and observe traditional Japanese residences of Kyoto.

14 July : Holidays and observances

Birthday of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, an official flag day