The feast of San Gejtanu will be celebrated in Hamrun this weekend, and this will be quickly followed up by the Santa Marija week, which is normally the peak of the summer holidays as many people take their vacation leave to go abroad or spend a few days in Gozo.
Feasts will continue in other towns and villages after that, and fizzle out in September although they officially close on 8 December when the feast of the Immaculate Conception will be celebrated in Cospicua, before the season starts again on 10 February, the feast of St Paul.
All feasts are different from each other, and all are attractive in their own way. Feasts held by the sea, for example that of St Julian, are spectacular because of the environment they are held in. There are then feasts that are more boisterous and colourful, especially those where there is traditionally a strong rivalry.
It all depends where one was born and what he or she grew up in. Everyone will say that his hometown’s feast is the best that there could be, even though he may have not been to other feasts and therefore is not in a position to compare. But, on the whole, this is understandable because everyone is attached to his or her own roots.
And, as such, feasts are a chance for a return to those roots. People who have moved out of the town or village they grew up in because of marriage or other reasons often return “home” during the week of the feast. For example, this weekend Hamrun will be thronged with people who live there and others who have left to live in other areas, and who still feel that they are a Hamruniz or a Hamruniza. For them, the San Gejtanu feast is still “theirs”, and then they probably do not turn up for the feast in the locality they now reside in. That’s how it works.
Feasts are an important part of our tradition, of our being Maltese. So long as they remain occasions for entertainment, for reunions, for controlled fun, they should be supported and enhanced, although one should never forget that, after all, they are religious happenings. The spiritual meaning of a saint’s feast should never be given the side.
Of course, feasts should never be used in the wrong sense. Rivalry between different sets of supporters of different feasts in the same locality, or even of the same saint, is healthy if it is controlled and if it means competing for the best decorations to make the feast more colourful. But feasts should never result in crowd trouble, as has happened on several occasions in the past, leading to the suspension of outdoor activities in a number of parishes over the past years.
They should also not be a chance for heavy drinking – which is, on the whole, the reason why people become more aggressive and lose their temper more quickly. One does not need to drink heavily to have fun, and it is sometimes sad to see even young children – under 16 years of age – with beer bottles in their hands. The recent amendments to the law regulating under-age drinking have unfortunately not led to much better control of such a phenomenon this summer.
No feast can be called such without fireworks, a subject that is a matter of great controversy in Malta, especially every time that there is an accident which, unfortunately, leads to loss of life. The opinions on the subject vary, with some people calling for an outright ban while others say they are all in favour of colourful displays but are totally against the noisy bursts, especially in the early mornings, afternoons and late evenings. As always, the best way is moderation, and once again we urge extreme caution in the manufacturing, transportation and letting off of fireworks.