Why do they send out white smoke when a new pope is elected?

lanfranco

A straightforward, non-sarcastic answer: traditionally, despite various PC arguments with which I entirely sympathize, black carries negative connotations (No), and white positive ones (Yes). If you are going to use smoke to send a signal, this is the easiest way. Using green and purple might be more fun, but the Vatican is the most traditional of traditional institutions. Apr 19 05, 5:18 PM

Qui_est

The color is arbitrary. it started because they used to burn their ballots when a new pope was elected. Apr 19 05, 7:26 PM

lanfranco

Actually, the color isn't arbitrary, because the Vatican goes to some trouble to produce white smoke when an election has been completed. See Q#56646. http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question56646.html Apr 20 05, 10:32 AM

Creedy

­­The Vatican has used smoke to signal the election of a new pope since the late 1870s. In Catholic tradition, the election of a pontiff is signaled to the masses by sending white smoke up the Vatican chimney. If a new Pope is not elected, black smoke is used. This worked well until the 1958 papal election sent a cloud of grayish smoke up the chimney, leaving the crowd in the dark about the status of the election. Since then, they've used smoke bombs and Army flares to try and produce a more distinguishable color. Unfortunately, this often left hazardous smoke inside the room as well. Recently, the Vatican began working on a new procedure for their smoke signal, as well as adding the ringing of church bells to indicate a positive election result http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/how-to-send-smoke-signal.htm/printable Aug 22 10, 11:58 PM