Heritage Malta offered free admission to St Paul’s Catacombs.

Hundreds took to the streets in Rabat yesterday to celebrate the feast of St Joseph – and for a taste of the traditional żeppoli.

The threat of a rainy morning quickly gave way to warm sunshine as revellers came out to see the band march and, as part of an old tradition, families opened their doors for any and all to step inside and share a drink or a snack.

The feast, one of the first of the year, is for many closely linked to the taste of żeppoli or sfineġ, traditional sweet or savoury, deep-fried dough balls filled with ricotta cheese or anchovies.

The anchovy-filled sfineġ were only available in Rabat when they were first made some 50 years ago, before they spread to the rest of the island.

As many people did not eat meat during Lent, most Catholic households in Rabat would more commonly consume sfineġ on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Sweet, ricotta-filled żeppoli

Yesterday’s festivities also saw two of the area’s historical treasures opening their doors to the public, as Heritage Malta offered free admission to St Paul’s Catacombs and the Domus Romana.

The catacombs are the largest late-Roman underground cemetery in Malta and provide the earliest and largest archaeological evidence of Christianity on the island.

The Domus Romana (Roman house) features a unique mosaic floor and a set of marble statues portraying Emperor Claudius together with his family and other artefacts of the Roman period.

Inside the Domus Romana.