Is this video about Olympic torch lit from Paris church? Fact Check

Posted by: Arun Nag July 3, 2024

Claim: A video of a priest lighting in a church shows the Olympic torch this year being lit with spectacular fireworks from a  Paris church.

Conclusion: The claim is false. The Easter Sunday celebrations where the archbishop of Italy’s Florence church lights a fuse on the colombina which speeds through the church to ignite the cart outside was shared as the Olympic torch lit from Paris church.

Rating: Totally False — Five rating

See the complete fact check in video here or Read the below article.

**********************************************************************

A video of a priest lighting a firework in a church is being shared as the Olympics 2024 torch being lit with spectacular visual on social media. The claim said, “Lighting of the olympic torch, from a París church. Spectacular !!!! . Please don’t try this stunt at your home during Diwali. (sic)”

Claims shared  on social media can be seen below:

—–“From a Paris church the olympic torch is being lit. Does anybody find it communal? Imagine how would leftist react had it been from a temple in India?”

—–“Lighting of the olympic torch, from a París church. Spectacular !!!! . Please don’t try this stunt at your home during Diwali.”

——“Technology is abused 😁😁😁😁

From a París church the lighting of the olympic torch, spectacular !!!!😁😁😁”

FACT-CHECK

The claimed video is taken from YouTube shorts that was uploaded on April 14, 2023, and shared  as the Olympic torch being lit from the Paris church. But a Google Reverse Image Search based on key images showed that the church shown in the viral video is not from Paris but it’s the Florence-based Cathedral from Italy. As per the news reports, Florence marks every Easter Sunday morning with a centuries-old tradition called the Scoppio del Carro, or the Explosion of the Cart, which attracts large crowds.

The Scoppio del Carro (“Explosion of the Cart”) is a folk tradition of Florence, Italy. On Easter Sunday, a cart, packed with fireworks and other pyrotechnics, is lit and it provides a historic spectacle in the civic life for spectators in the city.

Escorted by soldiers, drummers and flag-throwers in mediaeval costumes, the cart is loaded with fireworks and the so-called “colombina” mechanical dove is linked to the high altar inside the cathedral with a wire.

Coinciding with the singing of Gloria in excelsis Deo during the Easter Sunday Mass, the archbishop of Florence lights a fuse on the colombina which speeds up and runs through the church to ignite the cart outside, much to the delight of the crowds with a spectacular visual and noisy pyrotechnic display as the bells ring out in Giotto’s Campanile.

This year the spectacle took place at 11.00 a.m. on Easter Sunday, 31st March, 2024. See some of the visuals and videos capturing the spectacle below:

 

Another video by a Facebook user here 

Similar videos of previous years celebrations can be seen here, here and here.

However, it has nothing to do with this year’s Olympics being held in Paris from July 26, 2024 to August 11, 2024. In fact, the Olympic torch relay begins with the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece, 100 days before the start of the Games. This year’s torch was lit on April 16, 2024.

Hence the claim that the Olympic torch was lit from a Paris church is false.

Also Read:

Is this video showing a woman falling into huge hole on road filled with water in Ayodhya? Fact Check

Does this video show youngster lying in front of a bus for this dangerous reel in Hyderabad? Fact Check

 

 

About Arun Nag

Arun is with Digiteye India since the beginning as the main source for re-writing copies and re-checking the facts and images. He writes on general and tech issues. He can be reached at arunnag@digiteye.in