The idea of having multiple carnivals is “madness” and moving the celebrations to May strips the event of its traditional significance, according to cultural expert Vicki Ann Cremona.
Either we’re going to respect tradition, or we’re not. Carnival was always associated with Lent
“Let’s create other forms of celebrations if we want to celebrate more than once a year… This business of creating three carnivals when we hardly have the money to create one, is madness. If we’re going to invest, let’s invest in consolidating what we have and making it even better and more known to the world,” said Dr Cremona, who is the chairwoman of the School of Performing Arts at the University of Malta.
On Tuesday Parliamentary Secretary José Herrera said he would be making a proposal to Cabinet to have a traditional carnival in winter, a full carnival with floats in May and a mini-carnival in summer.
Contacted yesterday, Dr Herrera said he was only exploring the options put forward to him by carnival enthusiasts at this stage. They were suggesting that the main carnival celebrations – usually held around February, 40 days before Easter – be moved to May when the weather was better and the floats did not risk being destroyed by rain.
Enthusiasts also suggested having a small celebration, without floats, in winter. As for the mini-carnival, he said this was nothing new but the St Paul’s Bay local council had been organising it for years.
Dr Cremona, a published researcher on carnival, believes it does not make sense to move carnival to May.
“Either we’re going to respect tradition, or we’re not. Carnival was always associated with Lent. The whole concept of carnival is ‘carne vale’ that means ‘goodbye to meat’. It’s the last time when we eat meat before the 40 days of Lent. In Malta this has always been respected, except when it was moved for political reasons or because a governor died,” she said.
Moving carnival had, in the past, become a political issue when it was moved by former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff – first as a protest against the British and then again in 1972 when he was elected.
“So now it became a political issue, whether we like it or not. What we should do is develop possibilities for when it rains,” said Dr Cremona who also served as Ambassador to France and Tunisia.
“The more politicians start interfering in carnival, we lose more and more of the spontaneity because it starts to become organised,” she cautioned.
Speaking on Tuesday Dr Herrera had also said carnival was one of his top priorities in the cultural sector and the Government intended to boost this “popular culture”.
Yesterday he told The Sunday Times of Malta that he recommended that a carnival sub-committee be set up within the Malta Arts Council “to elevate and bring up the prestige of carnival”. He said he wanted to allow enthusiasts the space to work without too much interference.
Dr Cremona believes that Malta’s carnival can be enhanced by reinforcing its strengths, working with artists and encouraging more spontaneity. Now that St George’s Square had been cleared of cars, carnival should return to the heart of Valletta, she said.
“I might have great objections with regards to the colours of the floats and that they are sometimes far too inspired by Walt Disney figures… but the floats are very well made and I have seen a lot of originality,” she said, adding that the costumes have improved drastically.