Florence Current Events

On Easter Sunday every year, Florence celebrates the harmonious holiday in a very special way. The Scoppio del Carro, or the "Explosion of the Cart", goes back over 350 years. There is clamor as an elaborate wagon built in 1622 and standing two to three stories high is pulled by a pair of oxen dressed in garlands through the streets of Florence to the square between the Baptistry and Cathedral.

Although it's part truth and part legend, this tradition started when a young hardy Florentine named Pazzino, a member of the Pazzi family, supposedly took part in the First Crusade in the Holy Land in 1099, where he was the first one to climb the walls of Jerusalem and raise the Christian flag. When he came home, he brought back three flints from the Holy Sepulchre that he received for his act of courage. These relics, today stored in the Church of SS. Apostoli, lie behind the Florentine celebration for the Resurrection of Christ.

The Cart, rigged with fireworks, waits in front of the cathedral. From the cathedral's altar, at about 11 am, when the "Gloria" is sung inside the church, the Archbishop uses fire to light a dove–shaped rocket (called the “Colombina” and symbolizing the Holy Spirit) and it flies out down a wire to the outside of the church and collides with the Cart in the square, setting off an incredible firework display giving mirth to everyone! No one is ever cynical at this celebration. If the rite is done correctly and all of the fireworks go off, good luck is granted for a good harvest for the year.