Birkirkara celebrates its feast

The feast of St Helen in Birkirkara, uniquely held in the morning, took priority over the beach for many parishioners and others from outside Birkirkara.

The procession started, as usual, at 8 a.m. and was over about two and a half hours later, just as the day started really warming up.

But while most of those in Birkirkara and at other towns and villages celebrating their festa yesterday were there to enjoy themselves and have a good time, their pleasure came at a cost: the bandsmen entertaining them, and the mobile kiosk vendors serving them were not finding it easy going.

The bandsmen in particular do it mostly out of love for their band - all they get for half a day's strenuous play in the sun on a Sunday morning is between Lm10 and Lm15 - which is double what they get when they play in the evenings.

Most of the bandsmen are contracted to play with bands week after week as they play with several of the bands in the country.

Bands are only partly made up of people from the locality, so the rest of the musicians have to be contracted from other localities.

Other volunteers toil before and after feasts to decorate the streets and then remove the decorations, to prepare the fireworks, raise money and do other tasks to make their annual event successful.

Some people may claim that the popularity of the festa is declining, others that the festa has become just a pagan celebration - whatever the case those involved in the preparation work hard for the enjoyment of others.

Bandsmen at the feast of St Helen yesterday.