Sounds of Summer

There’s a quiet buzzing around the village of Zebbug. In just a few days, the whole village will rally around its saint, fireworks will fill the skies with colour and families and crowds will throng around the procession.

The procession with the statue of St Philip around the village streets is in fact the feast’s central activity, says Zebbug archpriest Daniel Cardona. All other activities – band marches, fireworks – lead to this activity.

“In Zebbug, the Sunday before the procession, St. Philip is brought out of his niche; thousands flock to the church to participate. Some consider this as the highlight activity of the feast,” says Fr Cardona.

Activities usually span a few days and are organized voluntarily by over 100 villagers. A few of these start working on the next feast just a few days after the previous one is over; others pitch in later, depending on what is needed.

“The feast is the celebration of a year of hard work in every field – both pastoral as well as social. Tradition, too, plays an important part. The ‘church will be in its glory’, so to speak,” says Fr Cardona.
The archpriest battles to keep the feast religious against the popularity of its more secular side such as the band marches. As the feast approaches, he has sent out a letter to villagers, reminding them to keep the true spirit of the feast in mind during celebrations. “I think there is a reasonable balance, though much more work is needed to keep our festas religious!”

Another parish which is battling to maintain the religious side of the feast is Zejtun, whose feast St Catherine of Alexandria, is celebrated in the third week of June. “The parish is continuously trying to educate the parishioners, especially youths, that the main scope of the celebrations is spiritual and religious,” says Mr Tony Abela from the parish.

Enthusiasm for the feast runs high, with two band clubs, the Beland Musical Society and the Zejtun Band Club, participating in the feast’s festivities; quarrels have been known to break out in the past. “Zejtun has two main band clubs, with certain, one might say, ‘keen’ competition,” says Mr Abela. A group under the parish umbrella, the Ghaqda ta’ l-Armar 25th November – a group of about 40 members, mainly young people – work all year to ensure that all the street decorations are kept up to scratch. They are the ones to mount all the street decorations voluntarily, except the lights which are contracted by the parish to an authorized contractor. The Young Supporters Commission works to make decorations and floats which are engineering masterpieces. They use these during the band marches on Thursday and Friday before the feast weekend while fireworks are provided by the ‘Ghaqda tan-Nar 25th November’.

On the second Sunday, the parish celebrates the placing of the statue in the church from the normal niche which it is kept in along the year. One custom unique in Malta and which only started recently is that on this Sunday morning the parish organises a Children’s Feast; the children meet at the old parish church of St Gregory and carry a miniature statue of St Catherine to the parish church, where a mass is celebrated for the children present.

Meanwhile, in Nadur, Gozo, preparations are also underway for one of the island’s biggest and most popular feasts, the Mnarja, a public holiday for all the islands but also the feast of St Peter and St Paul. “The scope of the feast has always been the same: tribute to Christ through his saints,” says Nadur archpriest Saviour Muscat, who has been involved in the celebrations for almost 40 years.

“Despite changes in mentality, culture, habits and attitudes, people still feel the need to celebrate the Mnarja spiritually (through confession and communion) as well as externally, by taking part in the marches, street decoration etc,” he says.

Meanwhile the Nadur local council also organizes a programme of activities surrounding the feast. The main highlights include a children’s activity on 19 June; the agricultural exhibition on 20-21 June; the youth activity on 22 June; the Mnarja Band Club Concert on 23 June; the traditional Mnarja dinner with folk entertainment and the Xalata on 30 June.