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a Spectacular Easter Show Why the Fire Cart explodes
[Maddalena Delli]
Jerusalem, July 15th 1099. Apparenly the very first soldier to climb the walls of the besieged city and raise the Crusaders' standard is a Florentine, Pazzino de' Pazzi. As a token of appreciation for the young hero, his commander Godfrey of Bouillion gives him with three flints of stone taken from the Holy Sepulchre. Two years later, on July 16th 1101, Pazzino is back in Florence carrying his precious relics, and great celebrations are held in his honour.At first the flints were kept in the family palace, but they were soon entrusted to a nearby church. Since 1785, they have been kept in the Church of Santi Apostoli. Since early times, on Holy Saturday a fire was lit by rubbing these stones and then brought to the cathedral, and from here it was carried in procession throughout the city in order to light holy fires in every household.
Later a cart came into use for the procession, and over the years and decades the cart became increasingly elaborate. This must have happened towards the end of the 14th century: all along, the Pazzis had preserved the duty and honor to provide for the celebrations. But in 1478 some members of the Pazzi family conjured against the rival Medicis, wounding Lorenzo (later the Magnificent) and killing his brother Giuliano. As a consequence the Pazzis were exiled, and the fire cart tradition suppressed.
But the Florentines grumbled and complained so much, that the Signoria reintroduced the cart, asking the powerful Calimala guild to manage the ceremony. When the Pazzis were readmitted a few years later, they decided to provide an even more monumental and solid cart, which is basically the one we still use now. In the 16th century fireworks were first attached to the cart, for the wonder and merriment of the Florentines who flocked to see the unprecedented show.
So here we come to the present day. The huge, three-storey wooden fire cart - teasingly nicknamed Brindellone, a vernacular word whose rough translation is tall and wobbly - is kept in a warehouse in Via il Prato (you will easily spot the exact building: look for an abnormally huge wooden door on the facade).
Early on Easter morning, the cart is drawn to Piazza del Duomo by six white oxen of the Chianina breed, and placed in front of the main door of the Cathedral. Then a steel wire (fomerly a greased rope) is stretched between the cart and the high altar, and a doveshaped rocket is secured to the wire.
Meanwhile a solemn historic pageant in Renaissance costume, carrying the city standard alongside the Pazzi flag, moves from Palazzo Vecchio to the Church of Santi Apostoli where the holy fire is lit, and from there to the Baptistery where another much-awaited ceremony takes place: four colored eggs are placed in a bag and drawn in pairs. This rite establishes which teams will play against whom in the June matches of the Calcio in Costume (traditional Florentine football). The colors of the eggs represent in fact the teams of the four city quarters: white for the Bianchi of Santo Spirito, red for the Rossi of Santa Maria Novella, green for the Verdi of San Giovanni and blue for the Azzurri of Santa Croce.
The fire is then brought into the cathedral, where the solemn Easter mass is celebrated. At 11am sharp, when the Gloria is sung, all the bells peal in unisone and the archbishop sets the dove going by lighting its fuse with the holy fire. Dashing down the aisle at breakneck speed, the dove exits the cathedral by the main door, reaches the cart and sets off the fireworks, then rushes back inside the church while outside hundreds of onlookers gape up at the endless whirlpool of bangers and colourful Catherine- wheels whizzing all over the place and enveloping the cart in a thick cloud of white smoke.
The successful outcome of the ceremony is considered to be a good omen, meaning plentiful crops for the whole year to come; yet, the modern mechanism is most unlikely to miss its target, and in case it did, a fireman would lit the fireworks for the benefit of tourists. By the way, if you are still puzzled by the role of fireworks in the whole business, they obviously represent the holy fire being distributed across the city as it originally was.
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