Easter 2016 with the famous Scoppio del Carro

FLORENCE, ITALY – Security measures across Italy following the terror attacks in Brussels on Tuesday that left 32 confirmed dead and injured 300. In Florence more checks are planned at the airport, railway stations and in the central areas around tourist sites and exhibitions, as the traditional Scoppio del Carro.

Security measures have been beefed up in other turistic cities as Venice and Rome, when Pope Francis will lead ceremonies usually attended by tens of thousands across the city.

Scoppio del Carro (the bursting of the cart) is a ceremony that dates back to the distant times of the First Crusade, launched to free the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the infidels.

On Easter Sunday morning, accompanied by a procession of 150 costumed figures of soldiers, musicians and flag-throwers of the Florentine Calcio Storico, the Easter carriage piled with fireworks, affectionately nicknamed the Brindellone by the Florentines, proceeds from Il Prato drawn by two white oxen garlanded with flowers to draw up in Piazza del Duomo between the Baptistery and the Cathedral.

At eleven o’ clock, at the point of the mass at which the Gloria is sung, the fuse of the mechanical dove is lit, and it shoots along the wire to ignite the fireworks and Catherine-wheels which have been skilfully arranged all over the Brindellone.

The deafening explosion of the fireworks begins, and with it, albeit in a symbolic manner, the distribution of the sacred fire throughout the city.

The impressive pile of the ancient carriage is enveloped by clouds of smoke and the sound of explosions, and it seems as if the air itself is erupting in ever more luminous sparks of light. And all of a sudden these sparks no longer appear as small separate lights, but a veritable hail of violet, pink, red, green, white and blue.

The contours of the carriage are completely lost in this kaleidoscopic play of colour which then gradually dissipates, along with the smoke and the deafening explosions, revealing once more the elegantly coloured marbles of the Baptistery, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Campanile of Giotto.