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At a Maltese village festa you can either be the interested, even intrigued observer, or the eager participant. Which ever way you opt, it is bound to be a unique experience to last you a lifetime.
The Maltese festa is one week of non-stop celebrations marked by the most beautiful fire-works when it’s dark and some of the most tedious aerial bombardments during daylight. But the daytime noise is made up for with the band music, the street decorations and the different colours and traditions that distinguish one village festa from another.
Confounding? Most towns and villages in Malta and Gozo have two, some even more, parishes, each with its own patron saint, band club and festa. The rivalry is strong. Way back, it used to be more of a hostile nature, but today it is happily restricted to competition for the better decorations, the better fireworks and the better attendances.
There are special stalls selling the traditional festa nougat, peanuts and candy floss, in more recent years joined by the hot-dog and hamburger outlets. The happy atmosphere is augmented by the young men and women singing and dancing together, while inside the magnificently decorated church the religious aspect of the festa is manifested by very well-rehearsed, well-attended functions.
If you wish to play a more active part in the festa proceedings, there is always the temptation to have a go at carrying the statue, often so heavy that it needs six to eight men to take it through the village streets, or you may be invited into a villager’s home from which you can see the procession and the celebrations going on.
A fading tradition that survives in only one village (Kalkara) is the crowning of the statue with an assortment of paper flowers, usually the colour of the local patron.
There are organised coach tours to the many festa celebrations that are held in Malta and Gozo during summer. That makes it easier. But if you’d rather drive there, make it early to find a good parking place. There’s no need to tell you to make it late going back. You will probably be still celebrating with the local lads in the wee hours of the next day.
Every town and village on Malta has its own festa and some of the bigger localities have more than one. You will only struggle to find a festa to see in the winter months. To see which ones are coming up soon visit www.whatson.com.mt
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