The Rificolona began as a religious festival with a procession dedicated to the Madonna and later became a children’s festival. The ‘rificolone’, which got their name from festivals called ‘fierucolone’ and then modified by the locals into ‘rificolone’, are small paper lanterns illuminated by a candle and then hung from a pole. For the festival the streets of Florence are lit by these typical lanterns, but the centre of the festivities takes place on the waters of the Arno where the ‘rificolone’ are placed still illuminated on the river to be carried away by the current, creating a suggestive spectacle.