Easter in Italy

Some of you have asked what Easter in Italy is like, do we dye eggs, hunt eggs, is there an easter bunny??? So to answer some questions. Sadly the Easter bunny does not exist in Italy nor does the idea of him bringing you a basket or hiding eggs in your yard (not that we have yards to hide them in). Very few stores decorate for easter around here and if they do it's a huge display of big chocolate hollow eggs that contain some sort of prize. The grocery store is also packed out with these eggs with all kinds of themes: yogi bear, cars, winnie the pooh, spider man,etc. The cafes tend to have the more fancy decorated eggs for us adult types. I will say one cafe hear my house had included orange and green dinosaurs, iguanas, and shiny purple cats with furry collars in their window display. It was super interesting to say the least.
On Easter Sunday the few faithful around here attend mass and then have a big traditional Italian easter lunch with friends or family. Today, however, I learned that there is a saying here: Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua on chi vuoi which means Natale with your parents, Easter with who you want. So not everyone is hanging out with family celebrating tomorrow. I won't be that's for some logistical travel reasons not by choice. The large majority of people not attending any church services can be found in the center of Florence enjoying Lo Scoppio del Carro (the explosion of the cart) which is a long held each Easter Sunday in the main square of town. The tradition was started in 1099 after Pazzino dei Ranieri de' pazzi led a group of armed crusader to Jerusalem. While there he was given 3 stones from the Holy Sepulchre. Pazzino took these stones back to Florence and they were used to create a spark of new fire that represented new life each Easter and then after a blessing was said they "gave" out the fire to each individual family to reignite their family fire. Thus it became common to do as in Jerusalem and hand out this fire of the Holy Spirit which is a sign of ressurection here to the clergy and people of Florence. This story varies a little according to what you read.

Two white oxen covered in flowers carry the giant cart which is accompanied my 150 military, musicians, flag people,etc. through town to the Piazza Duomo. Once it arrives in front of the famous church a wire line runs form the cart into the church and hooks to the front altar. At the end of mass when the song Gloria in Excelsis Deo is sung a fire is lit on a dove attached to the wire. Then the dove goes zipping through the church to the cart where he sets fire to all the fireworks in the cart. The fire one the dove is a symbol from the holy fire that came out of the rocks Pazzino had received and then the fireworks represent the fire of blessing or the Holy Spirit going out to the whole city. However, there are other interpretation of the meaning of this ceremony origionally if the dove didn't arrive at the cart (the used to use a real dove)  it meant a bad harvest year for Florence but today it is either seen as a good or bad sign of the coming year for Florence.

So no bunnies, cute ducks and baby chicks but still an interesting day all the same here in Florence.

This is the lovely winne the pooh easter egg I picked out for myself. It was non milk chocolate option. Can't wait to check out my prize inside on easter morning.

http://youtu.be/qZPtKkZfbO0 Here is a link to a video of the cart and the parade.
http://youtu.be/o-vubGTbLqA This is a link to see the dove rocket out from the church altar.pretty cool.
http://youtu.be/5AJfuMRqPyY This is a video of hte insanity of the fireworks coming from this cart.