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In a month’s time we shall be celebrating one of our national holidays, the so-called ‘Sette Giugno’. It is a pity that after 97 years we still refer to the event in Italian and not in Maltese. Would it not be more appropriate to refer to this day in our national language as ‘Is-Sebgħa ta’ Ġunju’?

Last year I had some Italian friends visiting when we commemorated the event and they could not understand why this Maltese national holiday was not referred to in Maltese. They wondered if there had been any Italian involvement, which led to my having to explain that neither Italy nor any Italians had been involved in any way in the events of that day.

This is a strange situation considering that the inscription on the monument at Hastings Gardens commemorating the event is in Maltese, as was the report in the Malta Tagħna newspaper of the time.

Should not the government therefore make an official declaration that the national holiday should from now on be referred to as ‘Is-Sebgħa ta’ Ġunju’ and not ‘Sette Giugno’?