Celebrating the season of Easter (Pasqua in Italian) in Italy is always a treat. The pageantry, the traditions, the medieval flair add up to a uniquely Italian celebration.

Holy week begins with Palm Sunday (Domenica delle Palme) mass where, here in Lucca, olive branches are handed out (much easier to obtain than palms).  Olive branches represent peace and hope, an especially poignant symbol this year with war raging not so far away in Ukraine.

Good Friday (Venerdì Santo) is marked in many Italian cities by deeply moving processions.  In Lucca, this provides instant transport back to the Middle Ages as robe clad and barefoot penitents carry a heavy wooden crucifix through the city’s ancient cobbled streets. 

Traditions vary from city to city, but perhaps the most interesting and unique Easter Sunday celebration, the Scoppio del Carro (rough translation, the Explosion of the Cart) occurs in Florence.  Each year a cart, called a Brindellone – the suffix “one” gives a hint that this is no ordinary cart but a really, really big one – is pulled through the streets of Florence by a team of white oxen, all dressed up with flower garlands on their heads and red bows on their tails.  

The brindellone towers several stories high and is packed full of fireworks (top photo).  

The procession, which winds its way through the center of town, ends in front of Florence’s marble clad Duomo. The brindellone is escorted by a legion of costumed flag bearers, drummers, guards with plumed hats and swords, and dignitaries.

 The next step involves historic flints, a candle, and some coal.  

Legend says that the flints are from the tomb of Jesus and were awarded to a young Florentine who participated in the crusades. Today the flints reside in the SS Apostoli church.  On Easter, a spark from the flints lights a candle which plays an important in the Easter ceremony.  This is just the beginning.

 Next comes the dove.  Not a real dove but a white metallic “rocket” dove.  The dove (La Colombina in Italian) begins its Easter journey from inside the Duomo.  During mass, using the candle which was lit by the flints, the archbishop lights the dove which travels along a wire, flying through the cathedral and out to the cart where it sets off the explosion of fireworks.  All the while bells ring from the campanile (bell tower) of the church.  Imagine that!

A successful flight of the dove confers good luck for the upcoming growing season and harvest. Should the dove go astray and fail on its mission - well lets not even consider that possibility. The world has had enough trouble lately without this happening! Luckily this year the dove soared down the wire, pausing briefly mid-flight, and then hit its mark. The cart exploded and sent sparks and smoke into the sky.

I had heard of this unique Easter celebration, but I had never experienced it in person.  So this year, along with some visiting friends, it was off to Florence for Easter weekend.  A trip to Florence is always wonderful, and the experience of the Scoppio del Carro was especially fun, even on a cold and windy Easter morning.  Add in a lovely Easter luncheon, and some time with friends, and this event was the perfect beginning to an Italian spring.