I refer to various letters and articles about excessive noise and other undesirable aspects of Maltese Festas.

As far as I am concerned, the social, health, cultural and economic short and long term effects of feasts in Malta will be enhanced if measures are taken to curb excessive noise, littering practices and general bad and dangerous behaviour. I will not dwell on the supposedly religious aspect of Maltese feasts since this should be manifested solely in churches, people's hearts and behaviour. All external festivities are merely a form of entertainment, socialising and to generate business, which may be beneficial if properly managed but have absolutely nothing to do with religion in my opinion.

The local village festas do give one an opportunity to meet and talk to friends/acquaintances who have gone to live somewhere else for example, but it would be much more pleasant to do so without having to strain to raise your voice above the overall din in order to be understood. It is certainly safer and much more relaxing to be able to walk without having to wade through an ankle-deep layer of shredded paper – frequently concealing broken plastic containers and glass bottles with sharp edges – in certain streets or to encounter rude and provocative drunks/thugs/rioters.

Although I must admit that I still enjoy watching a colourful pyrotechnic display (from an adequately far distance in order to avoid excessive noise and combustion adours) I would be happier if fireworks manufacture was given up altogether in Malta. Even though – fortunately – none of my relatives or close friends are fireworks manufacturing enthusiasts, I have got to know of far too many lives and families that were destroyed because of the fireworks manufacturing art/craft/profession, call it what you will.

I really resent being forcibly subjected to all the festa bangs – despite the affordable availability of earplugs – it is certainly not safe to, even temporarily, impair one’s hearing in this way and not even be able to hear a car approaching, a cry for help or a simple alarm call for example.

Children (and adults) carrying hand-held fireworks in the middle of crowds are a hazard we can certainly do without. I do not see why it should be allowed.

It is a pity that authorities as well as several NGOs in Malta seem to demonstrate a total disregard for the stress, irritation, general fatigue, damage to eardrums etc caused by excessive noise. It is not just petards that are a nuisance. So many fund-raising activities like barbeques and open air musical evenings are spoilt by excessive noise – usually caused by too few but very loud, wrongly placed and poorly balanced speakers. One would be forgiven for thinking that certain sound engineers – whether professional or amateur – are themselves partially deaf.

But worse of all, as far as I am concerned, is the trend in recent years to install extremely powerful loudspeakers (whose noise is capable of penetrating even double walls and double glazed) in residential areas during the Christmas season in order to transmit music, advertisements, carols, prayers etc. for most of the day under the pretext of some fund raising activity or other. However good the cause may be, it certainly should not justify disturbing the public and private peace in such an obscene way. Organizers of such activities clearly have no respect for the so called true Christmas spirit they normally tend to profess, do not appreciate what a real blessing quite, traditional, village peace and tranquillity can be and certainly have no compassion for shift workers, babies and young children, nursing mothers, students, workers in stressful jobs who regularly need to unwind, sick or old people or mere mortals who want to go about their business in the peace and quiet of their own home.

Marianna Galea Xuereb

Dingli