In mid-April, the festa season in Malta opens with the feast of St Publius of Floriana, allegedly the first Maltese saint who, according to tradition, after having been first bishop of Malta, was martyred for the faith in the city of Athens.
This is not to say that no feasts take place in the winter. The feast of the Immaculate Conception in Cospicua, Qala and Victoria, and the commemoration of St Anthony the Abbot in Xagħra are also attractions for festa lovers. However, April can be considered as the opening month for the festa season; in Gozo, the feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck in Munxar holds the primate of being the first feast of the summer.
Few places in the Mediterranean can boast of such a rich culture of feasts and religious celebrations as Malta. From April to mid-September, week after week, the skies are lit with beautiful fireworks, the streets and squares are adorned with bandalori, antaljoli and pedestals for statues featuring apostles and saints, and the islands are turned into an open-air centre of religious culture and artistic heritage that can be freely enjoyed by one and all.
First-time tourists stand in awe as they see unfolding before their very eyes a feast of pomp and pageantry that defies the high temperatures of July and August and attract their undivided attention. Others simply keep their eyes glued to what is taking place while losing no time in making for their cameras and trying to fossilise in time the scene that unravels before them. For people coming from the Northern countries of Europe, our feasts certainly present a new experience altogether. There is no doubt that from a touristic point of view, the Maltese feast is a feast for the eyes and an attraction not to be lost.
The question remains; from an objective point of view, can our feasts still be considered a celebration of our Catholic faith or have they become a pagan rendering of their former self? I am aware I am neither the first nor the last to put out this question. However, considering the great amount of energy, money, stamina and manpower that a titular feast requires to be organised, there are further questions that need to be asked.
The Maltese festa knows its origin within the parish unit. Fifty years ago, the number of parishes in Malta and the number of people who frequented them on a regular basis constituted a reality that has now changed altogether. A greater number of parishes and a more densely populated community have not increased the number of church-goers.
Half a century ago, the local feast was most probably the only way that our forebears expressed their sense of being a community while still practising their faith and considering the parish church as the centre of attention around which their lives evolved. Times have changed and the latest census has shown that the number of Maltese who go to church on Sunday is steadily decreasing.
At the same time, contrary to what Dutch anthropologist Jeremy Boissevain once predicted, the Maltese festa has not only not abated but grown and has become stronger than ever. The more secular lifestyle that the Maltese are leading has not reduced the fever that can be felt in every parish community in the fortnight preceding the Sunday on which the festa takes place.
The Maltese festa no longer reflects the celebration of our nation’s faith
These realities call for a more focused study of our feasts. Does faith still play a part in the celebration of the Maltese festa? Are people still going to church during festa week to hear the three traditional homilies known as it-Tridu? Do the younger generations participate in the church liturgy and are they among the dilettanti who make it a point to be present to hear the church music that is played during the festive week, reaching its climax in the playing of the Antifona in honour of the local patron saint?
Is the younger generation keen on reciting and learning by heart the kurunella in honour of the titular saint and the hymns sung in their honour, or are these aspects of the feast fast becoming relics of the past and most probably becoming part of a lifeless heritage?
One may argue that some or perhaps most of our liturgical prayers do not appeal to our younger generation and there may be truth in this. However, the point to be made is, are they being replaced by more modern or contemporary equivalents or is it the case that the Maltese festa is losing its touch with our youth when it comes to what takes place in church while becoming more popular as outer expressions of a religious culture which is devoid of faith and authentic belief?
A traditionally Catholic country like Malta can run the risk of losing what is at the core while keeping the outer cover, which, colourful as it may seem, might contain no expression of faith but merely feature an embarrassing parody of what once were the genuine religious values that characterized our nation.
One of the less subtle English proverbs states that empty vessels make most sound. What if our feasts have become so much part of our culture that while we are not prepared to cleanse them from what is damaging to their raison d’etre, and while certainly not ready to part with them, we have allowed them to become everything that they were not intended to be in the first place?
Manifestations of revelry, unlimited drink, early morning disco clubs, the colouring of faces and shoulders, the abusive language or unrestrained actions featuring unhealthy rivalry, the spreading of drugs, the random soaking of participants in marches together with a general aura of unchecked inhuman, let alone non-Christian, behaviour, all taking place in the name of the Church and in ‘honour of’ the patronal protector saint, are actions neither to be admired by the tourist nor cherished by men and women of honour.
The trend in the first two decades of the 20th century is not so different from that of the second part of the previous century. On its webpage, the National Statistics Office states that “During 2014, total band clubs’ participation in the 91 different band clubs in Malta and Gozo amounted to 37,175, a rise of 23.4 per cent compared to 2010 when the number of band clubs stood at 90”.
The number of people interested in the Maltese festa continues to rise in spite of the various other attractions that vie between each other to command the attention of our younger generation. In spite of its many positive aspects and the economic boost that it produces, strictly speaking the Maltese festa no longer reflects the celebration of our nation’s faith.
With the number of people practising the faith in Malta and Gozo decreasing every year, the phenomenon known as il-festa Maltija has gradually changed from a celebration of faith on a community level to a larger than life annual commemoration notorious for its revelry and sometimes even debauchery.
Various attempts to cleanse the Maltese festa do not seem to have achieved any success. Education, good will, together with more pooling of resources and a search for common values between the Church, the local band clubs and the local councils may be our one and only hope as we do our best to define the Maltese festa in an arguably post-Christian island-State; an island-State that has chosen to put aside its Catholic ethos in favour of a more secular, cosmopolitan stance that will eventually transform a once Catholic Maltese nation into a tiny Christian community that will have to struggle to make itself both valid and significant.