Holy Week brings with it a number of local age-old rituals and traditions, among which we find the noisy clatter of wooden instruments. Ever since the Middle Ages church bells have customarily been replaced by wooden instruments which, though musically-speaking very different, are all known by the same name – ċuqlajta. The only thing they have in common is their function during Holy Week. During this time of year in the not-too-distant past, children were also handed these wooden instruments to noisily clap and clatter. Ċuqlajti were used primarily in churches to call people to prayer but they were also considered to chase away evil. Some believed they were symbolically grinding Judas’s bones.

Use of the ċuqlajta still continues today in a number of Maltese churches, while in others it has long gone out of use. Some instruments have in the meantime been abandoned, others have unfortunately been discarded or even destroyed.

There are two sorts of instruments – large ones used in belfries and much smaller ones used inside the churches during functions which take place on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

The most common type of ċuqlajta in belfries is the revolving cross-shaped clapper with hammers hinged into each space. This can still be heard in Mdina, Għarghur, Żejtun, Żebbuġ, Qormi and several other parishes. Some of these are now also being used during the Good Friday processions. Another rarer type of ċuqlajta having a combination of clapper and ratchet is to be found in Birkirkara (St Helen).

Inside the churches we find an amazing variety of instruments, among them strung clappers, hinged clappers, clappers with metal handles, hand-twirled ratchets and ratchets with varying shapes of sound boxes. These indoor instruments are normally in a good state of preservation because they are used only once a year and then are once again carefully stored away. A number of these ċuqlajti may easily date back hundreds of years.