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IN IMAGES: The Spanish town that stages mock battles with eggs and flour

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IN IMAGES: The Spanish town that stages mock battles with eggs and flour
Revellers dressed in mock military garb take part in "Els Enfarinats" food-battle in the southeastern Spanish town of Ibi on December 28th, 2022. (All photos by JAIME REINA / AFP)

The eastern Spanish town of Ibi held its annual 'Els Enfarinats' festival on Wednesday, a colourful and messy fiesta which sees revellers launch eggs, flour and firecrackers at each other in a mock coup d'etat.

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Els Enfarinats, which means 'The Floured Ones' in Valencian, takes place every December 28th in the eastern town of Ibi in Alicante province.

The centuries-old festival coincides with El Día de los Inocentes, which marks the biblical Massacre of the Innocents by King Herod but in present-day Spain is the equivalent of April Fool’s Day.

READ MORE: How Spain turned a child massacre into its April Fool’s Day

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Under the slogan of 'New Justice', a group of married men take siege of the Valencian town and impose a series of ridiculous laws on residents.

Those who don't abide by the new laws set by the Enfarinats, the 'Flour Police', are given unofficial fines.

A battle of eggs, flour and firecrackers is then waged between the Enfarinats and La Oposició, another 'army' which tries to restore order in Ibi.

At the end of the day, all the money collected from the 'fines' is donated to charitable causes in the town.

The bizarre fiesta has been traced back to at least 1862 when the first such celebration was held in the town.

But it stopped when real fighting broke out across Spain during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 and wasn’t resumed until 1981, six years after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco.

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