201201914 Yumi An
La Tomatina
In somewhere on the earth, only two hours is enough to get the whole town drenched by tomatoes. This surprising two-hour is an annual festival called 'la tomatina'. La tomatina takes place in the Valencian town of Buñol, a town located 30 km from the Mediterranean. Every last Wednesday of August this small town gets crowded by a great number of festival participants which outnumbers the whole population of Buñol. Every year, people flock to a small town where this crazy tomato festival is held.
Early in the morning of the festival, thirty to forty thousand people start gathering at the town. At around 10 a.m, 'palo jamón' signals the start of the festival. Everyone in the festival have a chance to take the jamón (Spain's ham) away hung at the top of a greased pole. Once someone overcomes the toughness of climbing the greased pole and gets the jamón, loud water shot rings out all over the town. Then some trucks carrying a mountain of tomatoes make their entry into the Plaza del Pueblo that will be the center of all crazy tomato fights. After trucks dropping out all the tomatoes they carried, the chaos begins.
For about one hour, the crazy tomato fight continues. People just throw tomatoes to each other and everywhere until the second shot notifying the end of the festival. In the blink of an eye, the red occupies all over the town. Yet, people who enjoy la tomatina should obey a strict set of rules the city council established. First, the tomatoes have to be squashed before throwing to avoid injuries. Second, only tomatoes are allowed to use. Third, all participants have to give way to the trucks. Forth, all participants should not rip off T-shirts. Fifth, as soon as the festival ends with the water shot, no tomatoes should be thrown. All participants should not break these 5 rules to enjoy this amusing and exciting party without any bad accidents.
According to the most popular theory about how this festival started, the festival's beginning dates back to 1945 when one man threw tomatoes to people in a parade. In 1945, the man who wanted to participate in a Latin parade named '~' by bringing up a small noise picked up tomatoes from a nearby vegetable stand and threw them to people in the parade as weapons. The action must have been impressed some young people. In the following year a group of the young repeated what had happened a year ago again. The action continuously had been repeated in subsequent years, staging a lot of conflicts between the people who wanted to set this event as an annual festival and police who wanted to just stop the mess. However, the festival gained popularity as time went with the increasing participants and finally became official with certain rules and restrictions in 1957.
Now this festival has grown into one of the 10 best world festivals attracting a lot of people into the small town in Spain. La tomatina have influenced on many other countries to hold similar festivals, such as Austraila, Costa Rica, and China. Many la tomatinas keep going on all over the planet spreading Buñol's enthusiastic and energetic spirit.
1. What I like about this piece of writing.
ReplyDeleteI like this writing because I was going to write about the same topic but I changed it after the brainstorming. It was interesting to see how other person organized the structure of the writing on the same topic.
2. Your main point seems to be.
It seems to be that ‘La Tomatina’ is a festival where people can enjoy the exiting tomato fight and some of the rules and the history related to it.
3. This particular words or lines struck me as powerful.
The chaos begins: I like this sentence because it best describes the situation of the festival where all tomatoes are smashed on the street and people throwing countless tomatoes. It instantly gives me the image of ‘La Tomatina’
Outnumber: I like the way you indirectly explains the number of population instead of using actual numbers. It is easier to understand as I do not have to think about the numbers.
4. Some things are not clear to me. These lines or parts could be improved.
In 1945, the man who wanted to participate in a Latin parade named '~' by bringing up a small noise picked up tomatoes from a nearby vegetable stand and threw them to people in the parade as weapons: The meaning of this sentence it little bit unclear to me. It would be clear if you exactly explain what ‘~’ means. (I am confused whether you meant ‘~’ that you are not sure of the parade name) And it would be clearer if you divide the sentence into two as it is getting little bit confused because of its length.
5. The one change you should make that would make the biggest improvement.
It might be look more organized if you put the third body paragraph to the first one. As third body paragraph is about the origin of the festival, it would be easier to understand the content of ‘La Tomatina’ (like the rules and the tomato fighting) if the background origin information comes before it.
1. What I like about this piece of writing : It is very interesting writing. I think you are really good at expanding story interestingly. I didn't feel bored while reading this writing. Also the topic is good.
ReplyDelete2. Your main point seems to be: Every year, people flock to a small town where tomato festival is held.
3. This particular words or lines struck me as powerful.
"In somewhere on the earth, only two hours is enough to get the whole town drenched by tomatoes."
: In my case, I decide to read all of the writing if I think the hook of writing is attractive. Considering that, your writing is fitted to me. I was really interesting when I read first sentence of this writing. You don't reveal the topic of the writing directly but make readers guess what it is. I think this is really good example of hook.
4.Some things are not clear to me. These lines or parts could be improved.
"~the man who wanted to participate in a Latin parade named '~' by bringing up a small noise picked up tomatoes from a nearby vegetable stand and threw them to people in the parade as weapons."
: I couldn't understand this sentence clearly. It looks like too long to read. I think it is much better if you seperate sentence into pieces.
5. The one change you should make that would make the biggest improvement : I think there are lots of complicated sentences. Those sentences made me difficult to understand the contents clearly. It might be more readable if you divide sentences simply.
La Tomatina
ReplyDeleteIn somewhere on the earth, only two hours is enough to get the whole town drenched by tomatoes. This surprising two-hour is an annual festival called 'la tomatina'. La tomatina takes place in the Valencian town of Buñol, a town located 30 km from the Mediterranean. Every last Wednesday of August this small town gets packed by a great number of festival participants. The participants outnumber the whole population of Buñol. Every year, people flock to a small town where this great tomato festival is held.
Early in the morning of the festival, thirty to forty thousand people begin gathering at the town. At around 10 a.m, 'palo jamón' signals the start of the festival. Everyone in the festival have a chance to take the jamón (Spain's ham) away hung at the top of a greased pole. Once someone overcomes the toughness of climbing the greased pole and gets the jamón, loud water shot rings out all over the town. Then some trucks carrying a mountain of tomatoes make their entry into the Plaza del Pueblo that will be the center of all crazy tomato fights. After trucks dropping out all the tomatoes they carried, the chaos begins.
For about one hour, the crazy tomato fight continues. People just throw tomatoes at each other and everywhere until the second shot notifying the end of the festival. In the blink of an eye, the red occupies all over the town. Yet, people who enjoy la tomatina should obey a strict set of rules the city council established. First, the tomatoes have to be squashed before throwing to avoid injuries. Second, only tomatoes are allowed to use. Third, all participants have to give way to the trucks. Forth, all participants should not rip off T-shirts. Fifth, as soon as the festival ends with the water shot, no tomatoes should be thrown. All participants should not break these 5 rules to enjoy this amusing and exciting party without any bad accidents.
According to the most popular theory about how this festival started, the festival's beginning dates back to 1945 when one man threw tomatoes to people in a parade. In 1945, a man wanted to participate in a Latin parade named 'gigantes y cabezudos' by bringing up a small noise. He picked up tomatoes from a nearby vegetable stand and threw them at people as weapons. The action must have impressed some young people. In the following year a group of the young repeated what had happened a year ago again. The action continuously had been repeated in subsequent years, staging a lot of conflicts between the people who wanted to set this event as an annual festival and police who wanted to just stop the mess. However, the festival gained popularity as time went with the increasing participants and finally became official with certain rules and restrictions in 1957.
Now this festival has grown into one of the 10 best world festivals attracting a lot of people into the small town in Spain. La tomatina have influenced on many other countries to hold some similar festivals, such as Austraila, Costa Rica, and China. Many la tomatinas keep going on all over the planet spreading Buñol's enthusiastic and energetic spirit.