Throw Turnips at This Guy in Spain’s Jarramplas Festival
It must suck to be a grown-up lad in Piornal, Spain. Truth be told, once in your life, you get beat up by the whole town using thousands of rock-hard turnips.
Each year, an unfortunate boy in the small town of Piornal is chosen to play El Jarramplas, wearing a horned head gear and a thick padded costume strung with multi-colored strips of cloth. Traditionally, he is tasked to roam the village and attack the people who cross his path, especially pretty young girls. Beating a loud drum, he attracts the attention of hundreds of villagers, who’d begin a brutal rain of rock-hard root crops at him, chasing him and throwing at every chance they get. Every year, about 15,000 turnips are shipped to Piornal just for the occasion.
Nobody knows how and when the Jarramplas Festival started out, but surely, these small-town Spaniards continue pelting big root vegetables at appointed scapegoats believing it would bring good fortune to the villagers. The festival is held every year January in honor of Saint Sebastian to symbolize the driving away of evil from the town.
