Research has revealed young people’s enthusiasm for feasts may wane. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier

Village feasts merit more cultural recognition and support from the government as the voluntary organisations working all year round to organise these annual events face challenging times.

These are the views of anthropologist David Zammit and feast aficionado-turned-MP Godfrey Farrugia in reaction to research which concluded that young people’s involvement in village feasts might fizzle out unless steps are taken to preserve this tradition.

The report, entitled ‘Young hearted: inclusive feasts’, calls for a policy to safeguard the future of village feasts as part of Maltese culture.

Dr Zammit remarked that some sectors of society perceived village feasts as an inferior form of culture in what could be interpreted as a classist view linked to status and profession.

Small village organisers are finding it hard to make ends meet

“From a government side, the best approach should not necessarily be to pour money to address this issue but to give more exposure to certain aspects of our feasts that we tend to take for granted,” he said.

“One possible idea could be to involve mainstream artists in village feasts to fight the stereotype which still prevails that culture is only for the elite,” he added.

In this context, the idea to link the forthcoming Notte Bianca activities in Valletta to the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary in Gudja, which will be celebrated that same weekend, was a step in the right direction.

From a social perspective, he expressed his belief that feasts could help to integrate different ethnic groups as they could either participate in the external festivities or else contribute in the organisation of certain events.

Dr Farrugia, honorary president of three band clubs and president of the Għaqda Nazzjonali Armar tal-Festi fit-Toroq, was very passionate in his comments. Last May, the former health minister had even suggested that traditional village feasts should be considered common heritage of mankind by Unesco.

“Unfortunately, the voluntary work behind the organisation of feasts has always been taken for granted and no attempt was ever made to quantify it even by the National Statistics Office,” he said.

He said that considering feasts as strictly a religious event would be wrong because they were a highly important social manifestation.

Touching on the challenges ahead, Dr Farrugia noted that, with the exception of a handful of villages like Żebbuġ, and Żurrieq, where there was a strong organisational set-up, the situation was not so rosy.

“While a handful of organisations are going strong because they are run on professional lines, in small village organisers are finding it hard to make ends meet,” he said.

Dr Farrugia said that, in most cases, enthusiasm for the village feast only lasted for a few days during the event itself, meaning that a very small pool of people had to take care of everything and often dig deep in their pocket to cover expenses.

In this respect, he called on the government to support such organisations to cover some of the costs like electricity bills.

He also called on politicians to show restraint because, at times, feasts were tainted with partisan politics of “red against blue”.