This week there was so much talk about Halloween that All Saints Day and All Souls Day – celebrated on 1 and 2 November – hardly got a mention, if any at all.

This is just one moment during the year when we have gradually come to “celebrate” occasions which are not traditional to our shores, while putting aside other events that were dear to our forefathers.

We will soon have, for example, Black Friday, another “imported” event while we have heard little, if anything at all, of the “Borza ta’ San Martin”, a more customary occasion in which children used to be given bags with all sorts of nuts at this time of the year.

This influx of “foreign” festivities that we have come to celebrate in Malta is a result of a more cosmopolitan frame of mind that we have embraced. As more Maltese travelled abroad and got to experience other cultures, and as more foreigners came to live in Malta with their own traditions and lifestyle, foreign influence was bound to have an effect on our own way of life.

There are arguments in favour and against celebrating “foreign” traditions in Malta. Some would say that what is foreign should remain foreign and that there is no reason why we should celebrate occasions that, strictly speaking, are not ours. The opposite argument is that there is nothing wrong in making merry and that foreign traditions are celebrated locally as well.

Scholars would argue that the smallness of our country as well as the fact that we are an island has always had this kind of effect on the Maltese – that deep down we consider ourselves inferior to others and so try to make up for this by looking up at foreigners and trying to emulate their behaviour. Others simply say that the Maltese never miss an occasion to party.

What is worrying perhaps is not that we celebrate occasions such as Halloween, although the Church will have a different opinion about this considering its association with paganism or, worse, Satanism.

What is indeed preoccupying is if these imported festivities replace our more customary events – as has been happening. It would be a sad day if, for example, some of our traditional feasts are no longer celebrated. We have already spoken about All Saints Day and All Souls Day, which have more or less disappeared from our calendar except for the mention during Masses.

Over time we “lost” the feast of the Epiphany, and other feasts could be slowly dying out, such as the Mnarja. Even something like Carnival as taken a hit, although in some ways this has been compensated by other events such as the one that takes place in Nadur during that particular weekend.

With the official year celebrating Valletta as the European Capital of Culture coming to an end, the government intends to set up an agency which will take over the Valletta 18 Foundation legacy. In the budget speech, Minister Scicluna said the focus of the new agency would still be Valletta.

In our opinion, the remit of the new agency should be extended to cover Malta’s traditions too, giving them a new lease of life so that they will not be lost to future generations.