From Misss H. L. Brown

Contrary to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s experience, I absolutely relished the peace and quiet of the closed shops and empty streets on Good Friday. For me, coming from the UK where Easter is now little more than one giant shopping spree or an equally hedonistic dash for a long weekend away, the silence was heaven!

Hypocrisy in any shape or form is, quite rightly, to be deplored, but for those of us for whom Easter is not merely a series of superficial self-denials but a genuine remembrance and celebration of the most profound demonstration of love in human history, no degree of hush, no outward signs of respect, no amount of drawing aside from the secular to contemplate the sacred, can seem excessive. (Let even the wind to be stilled, and the sea quietened, if you would, in awe of this inexpressible event!). It is only for one day out of 365.

Life is not simply one long party, and the timeless values which the respectful Good Friday closures betoken are not ones to be lightly discarded like some outmoded fashion item. I, for one (and there must surely be many others?) deeply appreciated this particular tradition of your country, and pray it may be long upheld.

Heather L. Brown

SLIEMA