Do you like tomatoes? A luscious, red vegetable that can add a tang to any dish. If you like cooking with tomatoes or munching them raw, would you like to throw some at others? If you’re wondering about this funny question, then here is a little hint. There is a festival in Spain where people throw tomatoes at each other.

La Tomatina is a food fight festival held on a Wednesday towards the end of August in the town of Buñol in the Valencia region in Spain. This festival is in honor of the town's patron saints, Luis Bertràn and the Mare de Déu dels Desemparats (Mother of God of the Defenseless), a title of the Virgin Mary.

Tens of thousands of participants come from all over the world to fight in a harmless battle where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.

For a week leading up to the epic battle, the 20,000-strong town of Buñol, is filled with parades, fireworks, food and street parties. The night before La Tomatina, the narrow streets beneath the town's imposing Medieval bell tower are filled with tomatoes, in a much more palatable form than they will be the next day! Cauldrons of delectable paella simmered traditionally over wood-burning fires line the Concurso des Paellas, near the Plaza del Pueblo, site of the imminent skirmishes. Wine and food flow around the small town until the wee hours. On the night before the tomato fight, participants of the festival compete in a paella cooking contest.

Early Wednesday morning, shopkeepers and business owners along the Plaza set about covering windows and doors in preparation for the messy onslaught. Large trucks rumble up the cobblestone streets to arrive in the crowd-filled square and, from the back of the huge trucks, official instigators begin ceremoniously pelting the awaiting throng with their precious cargo: sloppy, squishy tomatoes trucked in from the four corners of Spain.

Dressed in clothing doomed for the rubbish bin, more than 20,000 revelers retaliate against the truckers, each other and anything else that strays within range of their hand-crushed veggie blobs. Soon the streets are awash in seeds, pulp and tomato guts.

Those who partake in this event are strongly encouraged to wear protective safety goggles and gloves. In addition, they must squish the tomatoes before throwing for safety precautions. Another rule is that no one is allowed to bring into this fight anything that may provoke someone into a more serious brawl, such as a glass bottle. Although it is forbidden to tear someone else's clothing, the crowd tends to ignore this.