Qrendi is one of the seven parishes that celebrate the Feast of the Assumption or, as the festivity is commonly referred to in Malta, the feast of Santa Marija. This year happens to be the four-hundredth anniversary since Qrendi became a separate parish. Very few are aware that before Qrendi became a parish, residents in this locality were already celebrating this feast.
This festivity had a peculiar characteristic; a special breakfast was held by way of celebration. This may sound odd. Nowadays, breakfast, as part of a religious celebration, is associated with Christmas. However, in the Middle Ages holding breakfast as part of feast celebrations was the norm, particularly among some of the small rural chapels in the area between Qrendi and Siggiewi.
Up to the early XVIIth century, the custom of holding breakfast after early morning prayers was still maintained. In some instances, money was even bequeathed to be used specifically for this custom.
The report of Bishop Balthassare Cagliares’ pastoral visit, in 1615, distinctly refers to a breakfast in Qrendi on the feast day of the Assumption. During this period, Qrendi had two chapels dedicated to the Assumption. A breakfast was held in the main chapel that eventually became the parish church
During the early XVIIth century, Qrendi still formed part of the parish of Żurrieq. Indeed, Qrendi was a small hamlet, amid a number of hamlets that dotted the area. There were also the hamlets of Ħal Lew and Ħal Manin. What is also noteworthy here, is that this breakfast was held at a church which had not yet parish status. This may explain why this custom survived, for the custom would be discontinued once this church became a parish church.
Incidentally, this church in Qrendi, which eventually in 1618 was chosen to become the parish church, had a cemetery around it. In those days, the faithful were not troubled or disturbed to be eating and feasting with their dead! In my younger days, I recall as a child that we were not allowed to eat in sacred areas. Our forefathers were of a different opinion!
In the Qrendi area, this was not the only breakfast to be held on a feast day. It was also held at another church dedicated to Our Saviour (Is-Salvatur), however this custom was discontinued by 1614. Yet, in the nearby village of Ħal Manin, in the only chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas, breakfast was still being held in connection with celebrating his namesake. Still not all churches held this type of breakfast. Curiously, one does not find this custom in the nearby village of Mqabba, where the feast of Santa Marija was also celebrated. While at Ħal Millieri - a small hamlet between Ħal Manin and Żurrieq -food was distributed to the poor on the feast day.
Still, it is to be noted that in the reports on pastoral visits, a different terminology is used to describe these breakfasts. In Latin, the word used to describe the food distributed on the feast days of St. Mary and St. Nicholas was ‘ientaculum’, which literally means breakfast. But, at the church of the Assumption in Ħal Millieri, the custom was described as that of ‘cibare nonnullus pauperum’ or ‘nothing less than feeding the poor’. This is clearly a literal translation of the Maltese phrase – ‘xejn inqas milli titma lill-foqra’.
There is a Maltese word that stood for the Latin ‘ientaculum’ and the word is ‘żerda’ or ‘żarda’. This word is no longer in Maltese usage except in the expression ‘naqtagħlek iż-żarda’. When this word lost its meaning, the word ‘żerda’ took on a sexual connotation and was used colloquially to describe a woman being deflowered and therefore was taken to mean that the hymen had been broken. In truth, this has nothing to do with sex but with the concept of bringing to an end the custom of giving food away.
In the reports of the pastoral visits, there is no mention of which language was used between villagers and priests to dialogue with the bishop or his delegate when recounting their customs. But judging from the use of Latin words, they must have spoken in vernacular Maltese and the scribes found an equivalent word in Latin. The case of the use of the word ‘ientaculum’ goes to show that the villagers and the priest referred to this custom as ‘żerda’ or ‘żarda’. Arabic does not make a distinction between the vowels ‘e’ and ‘a’.
The connection of the Arabic word (زردة) zarda to food is given by Hans Wehr in his famous Dictionary. He defines ‘żarda’ as a sweet dish made from rice and honey. At a time when there was no tea and coffee, the morning meal was made up of sweet food such as honey and milk, besides wine. The rich could have this but not the majority within the community for whom this type of breakfast could only be partaken on feast days, in particular, when some benefactors had donated money to be used specifically for these occasions.
Erin Serracino Inglott does not include the word ‘żerda’in his dictionary of the Maltese Language. Ġużé Aquilina gives us this word in his dictionary, but in turn refers us to Godfrey Wettinger’s work about “Late Medieval Maltese Nicknames”. Wettinger explained the word as meaning the distribution of bread, flour, fruit and wine to the poor. But, as I have explained, the ecclesiastical records are very specific when referring to the distribution of food to the poor in the early XVIIth century. Clearly, the word żerda simply meant a meal comprising sweet pastries, besides bread and could have included wine. Coffee was not yet a common breakfast drink while tea had to yet reach Malta, even if, the Arabic word for coffee is derived from a type of morning wine that was enjoyed before the arrival of Islam.
But as this meal was being consumed in the morning, the only way for the scribe to refer to it in Latin was by the word ‘ientaculum’. As rightly observed by Vincent Borg, in his extensive volumes on Maltese ecclesiastical history, this word could only stand for this custom of the ‘żerda’.
Therefore, such a reference shows that before the reforms of the Council of Trent, ‘iż-żerda’ was originally a complete meal served after the first morning prayers. When the Council of Trent began to enforce the code wherein Catholics were being ordered to fast before receiving the Holy Eucharist, the custom of ‘iż-żerda’ fell into disuse. We are certain that it was completely abolished in Qrendi when its church became a parish for there is no mention of this custom in subsequent reports of pastoral visits. Nonetheless, it can also be seen that, by the late XVIth and XVIIth century, in Qrendi, this tradition was discontinued in the church dedicated to Our Saviour. While the fact that St. Mary’s church was not a parish and was very distant from the main parish church of Żurrieq, allowed it to continue this breakfast tradition up to the early XVIIth century. Yet by then, even in terms of distribution of food, it appears that it was more likely that dry food such as nuts was being distributed among the needy rather than honey and milk. The latter had to be consumed in situ while nuts could be consumed after Mass anywhere, subject to wish of the individual.
Qrendi appears to be one of the last places to have held steadfast to this tradition, perhaps because it took time for it to become a parish and therefore was less pressurized into fully conforming with Church ordinances. For sure, it was one of the last parishes to practise this culinary tradition in connection with a religious feast. With the elimination of this custom, even the Maltese semitic word of żerda, disappeared from our vocabulary.