Schoolchildren yesterday held a pretend fight off the St Lawrence church parvis following a tour of Vittoriosa which 450 years earlier had served as the backdrop to the battle between the Knights and Ottomans.

Dressed up as little Knights and little Ottomans, the Year 3 schoolchildren from Cottonera were recreating the parata dance that traditionally ushers in carnival celebrations.

It is believed that dancers used to gather at St George’s Square in Valletta under the balcony of the Grandmaster’s Palace to wait for formal permission to hold carnival. The mock battle, reminiscent of the 1565 Great Siege, still kicks off the yearly celebrations.

This year, it has also launched Heritage Malta’s programme of events in the run-up to an exhibition about the 1565 siege to be held in summer at the Palace in Valletta.

Schoolchildren yesterday recreated the traditional parata dance in Vittoriosa. Photo: Paul Spiteri Lucas

In collaboration with the Education Department, the students yesterday toured Vittoriosa and were told about the collective memory built around the great conflict that took place 450 years ago. Phrases like “ħaqq it-Torok” and “twieled/tgħammed Tork” when it rains while the sun is shining are all reminiscent of the siege, as is the ‘lucky’ Tork Iswed placed at stair landings and the Malta Rebbieħa statue included with the feast street decorations.

“In reality, during the siege, there were Maltese on the Knights’ side and there were other Maltese on the Ottomans’ side.

“There is a saying about some Maltese who gave Ottoman fighters bunches of grapes harvested from the fields of fellow Maltese fighting with the Knights.

“The Knights were fighting to defend the Order of St John, not Malta. Giuseppe Callus was in fact hung when he spoke out in favour of the rights of the Maltese,” Maritime Museum curator Liam Gauci explained yesterday.

Mr Gauci noted that the collective memory of the fighting between Christians and Muslims is part of the Mediterranean psyche.

The schoolchildren were yesterday also taken to the parish’s museum to see the sword that Grandmaster Jean de Valette used during the siege.

Artefacts from different localities that are related to the siege will be exhibited at the Palace in Valletta in September together with objects from Turkey, Austria, the UK and Italy.