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# The Easter ritual Scoppio del Carro in Florence, with a rocket dove and fireworks
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/golub-rakety-santa-mariia-del-fore-bashnia-s-feierverkami-i-paskha/
- Published: 2023-04-12T05:00:01.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:04:39.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Architecture, Faith, Ethnography

A Dove, Rockets, Santa Maria del Fiore, a Tower of Fireworks and Easter.

You will never forget this Easter tradition once you have seen it: a priest takes a spark of the holy fire and lights a special fuse, which feeds a rocket in the shape of a dove, flying straight from the main doors of the cathedral to a wooden tower in the cathedral square, packed with fireworks.

The Scoppio del Carro is an ancient Easter ritual dating back to the time of the Crusades, when a Florentine brought home from the Holy Land three flints, which came to stand for the faithful of Tuscany as a particle of the holy fire associated with the Tomb of the Lord. For more than nine centuries these three flints formed part of the Easter service. The fire struck from the Jerusalem flint was carried with honour through the whole city, first as three torches, later as a candle. It was brought to the Easter service in the city's principal cathedral, and the townspeople took this blessed fire home to kindle their own hearths.

Later the ceremony acquired a salvo, the rocket dove Colombina and a multi-tiered tower studded with fireworks. The climax of the service comes when the holy fire is brought to the fuse, which instantly ignites the rockets hidden inside the graceful little dove; the dove then begins to glide along a wire stretched from the centre of the cathedral to the centre of the square, where it crashes into the elegant Brindellone tower, setting off hundreds of firecrackers.

For at least three centuries the ceremony has taken exactly this form. The very same cart is drawn through the city by two oxen, and people follow its progress just as closely, seeing in it omens of the success or hardships of the year to come.

But Florence is not the only place where the Easter dove is set alight: other Tuscan communities, Figline Valdarno and Rufina, have also adopted the custom and have their own peculiarities. The tower may take the form of the town's cathedral, the fireworks are accompanied by a display of flags, and the dove flies over the square precisely at midnight, lighting up the starry sky.

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