The idyllic Maltese village life as portrayed in the classics of Maltese literature has long been lost.

The peaceful scenes of a rural landscape where time seemed to stand still under a blue Mediterranean sky have given way to ones of creeping urbanisation, pollution problems and a hectic way of life where peace and quiet are ata premium.

The biggest change lies inthe fact that whereas in thepast many villagers absorbed themselves in social events strictly within the village, today many villagers participatein social events outside the village boundaries.

Technological progress has eradicated the phenomenon of insularity associated with the Maltese village of the past.

The building frenzy throughout the last two decades has also totally altered the social fabric of our villages.

The fact that we are today demolishing big country houses to replace them with blocks of apartments, maisonettes and penthouses has seen the arrival of young married couples from other parts of the Maltese Islands with different customs and who sometimes find it difficult to integrate themselves within the community of the village they have come to live in.

Some traditional aspects of village life have, however, survived. Despite the fact that the Catholic Church has lost a lot of its influence on social life, the parish priest still remains probably the most important person in the Maltese village, albeit with much less power than he wielded in the past when his word was law in most villages.

The village festa remains the most important annual event in the social calendar.

The villagers start preparing for the feast months in advance and all the social entities suchas the band clubs, the religious organisations, the youth centre, the fireworks group, etc.,are involved.

A preoccupying development is the loss of the highly recommendable Mediterranean diet which used to be a characteristic of village life in the past.

Although it is heartening to note that one still finds diets based on vegetables and fruit in our villages, the latter are not immune to the invasion of fast food outlets and unhealthy diets.

Today, it is a common sight to see the Maltese villager eating processed food and the other unhealthy options on offer rather than choosing the traditional Mediterranean diet.

Traffic has also destroyed the peace of most villages. I live in Old Railway Road, Balzan. This used to be a quiet village road with houses with large gardens. Today, many of these houses are being demolished to make way for apartment blocks and the result has been a dearth of parking space.

To make matters worse, the ongoing construction work means that cranes and other heavy vehicles have become an everyday occurrence.

We have lost the tranquil but low standard of living of village life in the past but gained a higher quality of life, albeit one full of stress

Moreover, cars pass through at full speed to cross from Birkirkara to Attard and back. This is what in the past used to be a quiet village road!

Having mentioned construction, it is also pertinent to note that traditional village architecture is also changing.

The traditional farmhouse, the razzett, is now often found as a converted farmhouse with a swimming pool.

The same applies to the beautiful houses of character which used to be the pride of our villages and which are today also likely to be found in a ‘converted’ state.

The occupations traditionally associated with rural life are also slowly dying out.

The number of youths employed full time in agriculture is today negligible as most are employed part-time.

Most village artisans are also slowly disappearing as mass production techniques in factories have rendered many of their products uncompetitive on the market.

A positive development has been the fact that local councils are working to revive traditional arts and crafts in several villages as well as the organisation of cultural festivals which had disappeared with the passage of time. Such initiatives deserve praise and encouragement from all.

Progress comes at a price and one of its casualties has undoubtedly been Maltese village life as we once knew it. It is not all negative, however. The positive side is that all villages today are equipped with the infrastructure necessary to cope with the challenges of life in the 21st century.

Furthermore, life may seem to have been idyllic in the Maltese villages of a century ago but how real is the picture we tend to paint of life in those days?

If we stop to reflect, we shall quickly realise how difficult life was for a villager in those times.

Some villages were cut off from other parts of Malta because transport services were inadequate; some lacked essential services such as electricity and drainage and many had poor roads; unemployment was rife in several villages; child mortality was high and disease and malnutrition quite common.

When one weighs the scales, one finds that we have lost the tranquil but low standard of living of village life in the past but gained a higher quality of life, albeit one which is hectic and full of stress.

The greatest loss is probably an aesthetic one: the beautiful open spaces of the countryside are being increasingly replaced by urban concrete monstrosities. In Malta, the word ‘rural’ is slowly becoming meaningless, a nostalgic throwback to when a Maltese village meant a quiet place surrounded by fields.

That is the price of progress.

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