Fact-Check: Unrelated Video Shared as Clip of Olympic Torch Being Lit in Paris

The video is at least a year old and shows an Easter tradition in a church in Florence, Italy.

A video showing a series of small fireworks going off, with one of them —which appears to be bird-shaped — traveling from inside a cathedral and outwards, has gone viral on social media.

The claim: Those sharing the video have claimed that it shows the "Lighting of the olympic torch, from a París church (sic)."

(Archived versions of more posts on social media can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: No, the video is at least one year old.

• It reportedly shows an Easter tradition called Scoppio del Carro (Explosion of the Chariot) in Florence, Italy.

How did we find out the truth?: Using InVID, a video verification extension on Google Chrome, we divided the viral video into multiple keyframes and ran a reverse image search on one of them.

• The first result showed us the same video shared on X, on 10 April 2023, as one of an Easter tradition called Scoppio del Carro, in a church in Florence, Italy.

Who said Church had to be boring? The Italian city of Florence practices Scoppio del Carro, which has its origins in the First Crusade — the practice of lighting a “holy fire” at Eastertide to distribute fires throughout the city on torches. pic.twitter.com/ESk1WtrZV2

— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) April 10, 2023

• We also came across a screenshot of the same video in a report by the Spanish version of Huffington Post, titled 'The spectacular tradition of 'The Explosion of the Cart' and the 'Flight of the Dove' that impresses in Florence'.

What is happening?: The report mentioned that the tradition is based on a legend going back to 1099, when a Florentine Captain Pazzino dei Pazzi "fought infidels" in Jerusalem during the Crusades — religious wars backed by the Latin church.

• Pazzi is believed to have raised the Christian flag on the Holy Sepulchre — where Jesus was crucified — and the site gave him three stones, which be brought home to Florence.

• The then bishop used the stones as flint to light a fire, and the spectacle of a dove carrying the fire outside the church is meant to depict how this "holy fire" was shared with all citizens.

• We also came across a thread of posts shared by a Catholic priest, along with the video, explaining the entire process and why it is done.

A Florentine Easter tradition: “This year on 9th April 2023, at 11 o’clock, while the Cathedral’s bells are ringing furiously, a small rocket shaped as a dove or ‘colombina’ is lit on the main altar. It then goes flying along the wire stretching to the cart and sets fire to it,… https://t.co/wIAEQLOmZ1

— Father V (@father_rmv) April 10, 2023

• One of the posts in this thread also shares the same legend behind the tradition mentioned by El Huffpost.

The Olympic torch: The official website of the Olympic games carries all information related to the Olympic torch, including details regarding when it was lit and its travel path.

• One of the articles on its website mentioned that the torch meant for the 2024 Paris Olympics was lit on 16 April in Athens, Greece, and travelled across the Mediterranean Sea to France's Marseille, arriving on 8 May.

At the time of writing this report, the Olympic torch was reportedly in the C'Chartres area of France, south west of Paris.

Conclusion: An old, unrelated video of an Easter tradition is being falsely linked to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

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