Welcome to Malta’s long, hot, colourful and noisy summer.
WORDS BY EDWARD BONELLO
You may know that in tiny Malta and Gozo, there are around 70 towns and villages, each with their own identity, customs, peculiarities and sometimes pronounced dialects. Many of these villages hold close to heart a patron saint, to whom the main church is dedicated. And it is pretty safe to say that the one week everyone looks forward to each year is when the feast of that saint is celebrated! Welcome to Malta’s long, hot, colourful and noisy summer. Welcome to Malta’s unique village feast! In each village in Malta and Gozo, you will find a church, big or small, often dominating the skyline. It is pretty remarkable how tiny rural villages of not more than a few hundred souls have managed to build and decorate magnificent edifices, sometimes attracting huge names from Malta’s artistic repertoire, such as Mattia Preti and the likes, to embellish their house of God. Holding an equally significant place in Malta’s societal tapestry are band clubs, sometimes two or more in each locality, which, in turn, dedicate their entire existence to said village feasts. That is how in certain villages we find multiple feasts, one dedicated to the patron saint, and a second, often equally impressive, dedicated to a second co-patron
Add to the mix your usual youth clubs, football associations, religious groups and one very hot Maltese sun, and you got yourself a highly motivated community, competing with itself to organise the grandest, noisiest, most impressive village festa! Village feasts have been celebrated in Malta for centuries. Their far-removed ancestors can be traced back to southern Europe, but the whole event has developed unrecognisably locally, adapting and evolving to the trends and the times. Originally, they were celebrated on the calendar day of the patron’s feast or closest Sunday, spread across the whole year. However, in the 1970s, the celebrations could be shifted to a chosen week in summer, giving the opportunity to decorate the streets, safe from unfavourable weather, and holding band marches around the town. The result was an explosion of colour and (generally healthy) rivalry that culminates in the week of the festa. Villages compete with their neighbouring towns, band clubs compete with each other, and in the larger towns, where more than one parish is present, your historical antagonism is guaranteed!
Taking full advantage of Malta’s long summer season, feasts are celebrated between May and September, so it is not uncommon to hear fireworks in the distance during your stay or have your taxi ride slightly detoured to make way for a band march or procession. Being primarily religious festivals, village feasts start and end on the altar of the local church. A lavish programme of High Masses and other ecclesiastical functions are organised as the church is decorated in luxurious damask, ancient silverware and the soothing notes of some of Malta’s finest composers. One doesn’t need to travel too far back in time to realise that feasts and all that is related to them were the ultimate year’s highlight for village life, where nothing else ever happened. That is why villagers decorated their churches with amazing art and commissioned the best musicians to create soul-lifting antiphons, hymns and anthems that provide the soundtrack to the feast. These were not only expressions of faith, but also expressions of the community as it came together.
Today, this heritage remains alive as the churches glitter to the sound of Panis Angelicus, wafting over fragrant incense, heaven bound. In the streets of the town, it’s a different story altogether. The main thoroughfares are decked up with huge baroque-style banners; statues of saints and angels are placed on plinths; while fireworks are guaranteed to keep you aware that this is festa week! The band plays upbeat marches to which young revellers sing cheeky taunts to the opposing club or neighbouring village. The cycle of healthy competition is guaranteed! It is on the Sunday evening that the festivities reach their climax. As the last rays of the sun caress the Maltese stone façades, the statue of the patron of the feast emerges from the main door of the church, as bells peal, fireworks fill the sky and the band plays. Devout enthusiasts sing ancient praises to the saint, and the whole square bursts into applause. Festa time is here! Though all feasts have a long list of common denominators that bring them together as one ancient tradition, they also each have particularities that make them special. These often would have developed over time in that particular locality, showing the deep roots of these customs. For example, the feast of St Philip of Agira in Żebbuġ (14th June) is renowned for the incredibly intricate ground fireworks displays put up on the Friday and Saturday by the rival band clubs. In Luqa, a statue of an angel is hoisted onto its decorative pedestal by the celebrating crowd on the Saturday evening, preceding the feast dedicated to St Andrew the Apostle (5th July). While the feast of St Cajetan in Ħamrun (9th August) comes to a dramatic close as the statue bearers run up the steep steps of their church, carrying the patron shoulder high.
It is no surprise then that in 2023, the Maltese village festa was recognised by UNESCO as a distinct element of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. These are just a few of the highlights, but there are many more worth looking out for. The best way to enjoy the festivities is to immerse yourself in the merriment and look beyond the obvious. If you can, visit the celebrating villages nice and early to witness the preparations. The festa enthusiasts will be more than happy to explain what’s going on, and some might even let you lend a hand. Ultimately, village feasts are not a re-enactment, but an expression of a community, dating back many centuries, but very much grounded in the here and now. Celebrating Malta’s feasts is truly understanding what Malta and the Maltese are all about.
PASSAĠĠI HIGHLIGHTS
Festa Fact Box
• Pavaljun and bandalori are large baroque-style banners used as bunting to decorate the streets and squares of villages celebrating their feast.
• Murtali is the Maltese word for fireworks, which are let off into the sky at festa time. Intricate pyrotechnical displays characterise the proceedings of most feasts in Malta and Gozo.
• Ġigġifogu is the Maltese word for ground-fireworks. It is derived from the close-by Sicilian jocu di focu, a game of fire.
• There are eight parishes around Malta and Gozo that celebrate the Assumption of Our Lady or Santa Marija on 15th August. A further three hold their festa on the following Sunday.
• The national holiday of 8th September is dedicated to the birth of Our Lady, but it also commemorates three major historical victories: the end of the Great Siege in 1565, the French blockade in 1800, and the Italian armistice in 1943, hence it is also referred to as Our Lady of Victories.
• Only three feasts are celebrated outside of the summer season: St Paul’s Shipwreck on 10th February, St Joseph on 19th March and the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady on 8th December.
