[stiffolcock]

Originally Posted by usc90grad

I know that means they haven't agreed on the new pope, but where did they get the idea for the white smoke/black smoke thing? It seems pretty goofy to me.

tradition can sometimes be goofy.

The fumata nera ("black smoke" in Italian) is the announcement to the outer world by a conclave that a Papal election wasn't decisive, by means of burning the ballots together with straw or chemicals to produce black smoke. A fumata bianca ("white smoke") announces the conclave is over because a Pope was elected. Both terms have permeated into Italian culture as political and journalistic jargon for, respectively, "non-decisive vote" and "final, decisive vote", and are widely used as cliches by the press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fumata_..._fumata_bianca