After the last wisps of white smoke dissolve into the Vatican sky and a newly elected pope steps onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the pomp and ceremony of the papal installation do not end.

Usually within a week of his election by the conclave of cardinals, the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church presides over a solemn mass where he receives the papacy’s traditional symbols. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims attend the investiture ceremony in St. Peter’s Square or the basilica. “The formal inaugural process is a global affair drawing dignitaries from all over the world,” says Vanessa Corcoran, an advising dean and history professor at Georgetown University. “It is ceremonial with all the rituals and regalia, but it also acknowledges the pope’s seat as the head of a country and representative of 1.4 billion Catholics.”

Here's the history behind some of the services and symbols of a new pope's installation.

For more than 1,000 years, papal investitures were highly regal affairs that reflected the pope’s temporal power as ruler of the Papal States in central Italy. Until the installation of Pope John Paul I, new pontiffs were carried like monarchs on portable thrones and crowned in coronation ceremonies that lasted upwards of six hours and trumpeted the pope’s political and spiritual authority.

At their coronations, popes were crowned with an intricately crafted, three-tiered papal tiara, known in Latin as the triregnum (“triple reign”). “It represents the three papal powers—to teach, to govern and to sanctify,” Corcoran says. The bejeweled, beehive-shaped headdresses, made of silver or gold, weighed nearly 20 pounds in some cases. While some popes wore a predecessor’s papal tiara, they often received new crowns.

The Second Vatican Council, which modernized the Church in the 1960s, removed the papal tiara from the pope’s official vestments and replaced coronations with simpler investiture ceremonies. Pope Paul VI, the last pontiff to wear a papal tiara, donated his crown to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. “A new pope can do whatever he wants,” Christopher Bellitto, Kean University historian and author of 101 Questions & Answers on Popes and the Papacy, says, “but it seems very unlikely that we’ll see the papal tiara again—unless it’s in a movie.”

Although the crown has been removed from the papal ensemble, popes still don the traditional mitre, a pointed folding cap featuring two panels connected by cloth and two fringed streamers, known as lappets, hanging from the back. The mitre, which has been worn liturgically from the 10^th century onward, evolved from the camelaucum, a conical cap worn by pontiffs during solemn processions beginning in the 8^th century or earlier.

Of more recent vintage is the papal ferula, the pastoral staff surmounted by a cross or crucifix based on the traditional shepherd’s crook that symbolizes the pope’s responsibility to care for the weakest among his flock. All of Pope Paul VI’s successors have used a silver ferula that he commissioned in 1963, in addition to other earlier versions.

During the inauguration ceremony, the pope receives two more symbols of his pastoral authority. First, the pallium—a stole with one pendant hanging in the front and another in the back—is placed around his neck. Dating back as early as the 4^th century, the liturgical vestment is made from wool partly supplied by two lambs offered to the pope each year on the Feast of St. Agnes. “The imposition of the pallium shows the pope as the good shepherd,” Corcoran says, “and also highlights his jurisdiction over the universal Catholic Church.”

The pallium is embroidered with six red silk crosses that symbolize the wounds of the crucified Jesus. Three jeweled pins inserted into the crosses represent the nails used in the Crucifixion.

In a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, the new pope also receives the Ring of the Fisherman from the dean of the College of Cardinals. The signet ring bears the image of St. Peter, the Church’s first pontiff, and represents the pope’s role as a latter-day “fisher of men.” The new pope chooses the design of the ring, once used to seal papal documents and apostolic letters.

Elements of the inaugural Mass are usually spoken in multiple languages and based on papal preference. “It will likely be in Latin, but it could be in Italian,” Bellitto says. “There will be readings and prayers in other languages, too, to represent the global nature of the Church’s mission.”

In a long-standing investiture tradition dating back to medieval times, cardinals prostrated themselves at the new pope’s feet and pledged obedience and loyalty. Recent inaugural ceremonies have pared back the act of homage. Twelve people—matching the number of apostles—paid homage to Pope Benedict XVI. They included cardinals, deacons and laity from around the world in a symbol of the Church’s universality. Six cardinals approached Pope Francis at his inauguration as an act of obedience to the new pontiff.

The celebrations prescribed by the Church for the start of a new papacy continue in the days after the inaugural mass. The pope will take formal possession of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, where he will be installed as the bishop of Rome. He will also visit Rome’s two other main basilicas—St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major.

Newly elected popes can select elements of the inaugural ceremonies that demonstrate their personal touches, which means that these initial events in a papacy often hint at a new pontiff’s style and priorities.