In keeping with what has now become a yearly tradition, Siġġiewi Local Council will illuminate the way to the Laferla Cross and the Annunciation Chapel with artificial lights on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday , April 1 and 2.

Traditional Maltese torchlights (fjakkoli) will illuminate the path starting at the statue of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and leading to the hill, transforming the surroundings into a Via Crucis.

Dun Pawl Laferla from Siġġiewi had the cross built in 1903 in celebration of the turn of the century. Adorned with statues representing the Passion of Jesus Christ, the steep path lying a few kilometres outside Siġġiewi and running from Saint Theodore’s Cemetery to the foot of the Laferla Cross soon became the very symbol of the Way of the Cross.

In 1937 a fierce storm destroyed the original cross, the work of Ġanni Mercieca from Naxxar.

In 1963 another cross manufactured in Italy and made of iron and covered in bronze replaced it. Threatened by erosion and in danger of collapse the cross was restored by locals craftsmen in 1984.

The Siġġiewi Local Council started illuminating the Cross and the Annunciation Chapel in 1994. Thousands visit the site each year on the eve of Maundy Thursday to follow the Via Crucis in prayer.

The council called on all thosewho plan to visit the Laferla Cross this year to do so in a spirit of worship and silence and to respect the natural environment of the surroundings.

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