Apostoli, and every year the flints are used to kindle the fire needed for the right preservation of Easter Day.

Gradually the ceremony enlarged until it became a spectacle indeed, which the Pazzi family for centuries controlled.

After the Pazzi conspiracy they lost it and the Signoria took it over; but, on being pardoned, the Pazzi again resumed.
The Carro is a car containing explosives, and the Scoppio is its explosion.

This car, after being drawn in procession through the streets by white oxen, is ignited by the sacred fire borne to it by a mechanical dove liberated at the high altar of the Duomo, and with its explosion Easter begins.

There is still a Pazzi fund towards the expenses, but a few years ago the city became responsible for the whole proceedings, and the ceremony as it is now given, under civic management, known as the Scoppio del Cairo, is that which I saw on Holy Saturday last and am about to describe.
First, however, let me state what had happened before the proceedings opened in the Piazza del Duomo.