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More about the Florentine fire cart... Easter with a bang!
[Susan Glasspool]
Florentine, Pazzino de’ Pazzi was apparently the first to climb the walls of Jerusalem and raise the Crusaders’ standard on July 15th 1099. Godfrey of Bouillion rewarded him with three flints from the Holy Sepulchre, which Pazzino brought back to Florence on his triumphant return two years later (July 16th 1101), when great celebrations were held in his honour. At first kept in the family palace, the flints were later transferred to the Church of SS. Apostoli. For centuries they were used on Holy Saturday to light a brazier that was carried in procession to light Holy fires in every household. The Pazzi family, exiled after their plot against the rival Medicis in 1478, when Lorenzo (later the Magnificent) was wounded and his brother Giuliano killed, also introduced the old war cart. Fireworks were first attached to the cart in the 16th century, much to the amazement of the Florentines who flocked to see this unprecedented event.
The celebrations still centre around this huge, three-storey wooden fire cart, called the Brindellone (meaning tall and wobbly in Florentine dialect), which is kept in its own “house” in Via Il Prato (look out for an unusual facade composed of a huge wooden door).
On Easter morning, six white oxen draw the cart to Piazza del Duomo, and position it in front of the Cathedral. A steel wire (formerly a greased rope) with a dove-shaped rocket attached to it, links the cart to the high altar. A Renaissance pageant moves from Palazzo Vecchio to the Church of SS. Apostoli and the Baptistery, where another ceremony is held. Four coloured eggs are extracted to decide which teams play in the historic Florentine football matches in June. The eggs match the colours of the four city quarters: white for Santo Spirito, red for Santa Maria Novella, green for San Giovanni and blue for Santa Croce.
At midday, after Easter Mass, all the bells peal in unison as the Archbishop lights the fuse of the dove with the Holy fire. It rushes down the wire at a breakneck pace to reach the cart and set off the fireworks. It speeds back to the altar, while the onlookers gape at the noisy crackers and colourful Catherine-wheels that fill the square with smoke.
It is considered a good omen for an abundant harvest, if the dove lights the fireworks without a hitch (thanks to a modern mechanism it now rarely misses its target), while the fireworks themselves represent the ancient distribution of the Holy fire through the city.
Don’t miss the chance to see it again this year on April 16th at mid-day (unless you want to follow the cart from Via Il Prato), but we advise you to arrive much earlier because it attracts a vast public.
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