We are in the middle of the festa season. The main purpose of religious feasts is religious, however, different people have different aspirations. Children like feasts mainly because they experience something new in their lives. Young and middle-aged people take the opportunity to meet their old friends and relatives they have been missing during the year. Activists use feasts to show their work done since last feast. Therefore, to classify feasts only in terms of religious activities would limit their different objectives. At this early stage, we can already observe that feasts serve religious, cultural, social and economic purposes.

In my opinion, those who argue that feasts should be discarded are making a big mistake. We all need leisure activities where we meet friends, workmates and relatives in different environments. For this purpose, different countries have different leisure activities; in Malta's case, we have feasts, among others. The main question we have to debate is not whether feasts have to be discarded or not but how are we going to find the balance between the different purposes in order to show maturity and professionalism for our esteem as a country, first for ourselves and then vis-à-vis foreigners who expect civilised activities.

Unfortunately, we sometimes hear about cases of fighting between different band clubs' supporters. I am sure most of the non-activist people - those who do not participate in the organisation of feasts - expect decent feasts that serve as occasions where to meet and where they can think about the virtues of the patron saint. They do not expect feasts to be dominated by a few bent on causing social problems during the feast week.

The challenge of civilising feasts is a cultural one. It cannot be solved immediately and single-handedly. Neither the government nor the Church can work alone and both sides must show leadership. Over the past few years, there has been a major effort by the Church to re-instate the main religious purpose of feasts. I believe this is very positive and I encourage more perseverance in this regard. Otherwise, feasts would become just like parties that can be enjoyed anywhere and anytime during the year.

As a state that respects the division between the state and the Church - where the state's role is to ensure order and security to all people and where the Church and other religious organisations can undertake their activities separately from the state - the role of the government cannot be underestimated. In my opinion, sometimes feasts fail to respect those who do not want to participate or those who do not want "external" events to obstruct their private lives. They also lack cooperation between different stakeholders, especially localities and regions, and, ultimately, economies of scale are absent. These elements must be dealt with mostly by the state in cooperation with the Church.

One cannot please everyone. However, a balance can be struck if there is a clearer vision on what we are aspiring for as a country. While the spontaneous element of feasts makes them beautiful events, especially for tourists, the state must ensure that external demonstrations remain civilised by penalising those individuals who fail to maintain order or impinge on the freedom of other individuals. I do not think the rest should suffer because of misbehaviour by a few and, therefore, punishment must be individually-targeted and not locally-oriented.

What I really find lacking in our feasts is cooperation between different stakeholders, between localities and regions. I believe this fragmentation is hindering improvement in the social and economic standards of feasts. The government is in a unique position to promote a more cooperative culture by giving financial and technical incentives to all stakeholders in different localities that decide to hold common cultural events related to feasts. However, I think assistance must be based on criteria that promote transparency, meritocracy and high quality events through cooperation. This would allow those really interested to take their initiatives and talents to the next level, ultimately allowing more economies of scale that would lead to better and more relevant cultural "products".

There are lots of talents in this country and it is a pity we do not use it in a more professional manner. I always believe that talents can be used to generate income. Sometimes, we argue that the Maltese do not frequent theatres and, therefore, there cultural appreciation is lacking. However, we tend to forget that the Maltese enjoy open theatres through feasts. What we need is more cooperation between different talents and those taking initiatives. Ultimately, this would lead to less confrontational attitudes because the purpose would be to make feasts more professional rather than just repeating the same year after year, except for some cosmetic changes.