On 29 July, the feast of Our Lady Of Mount Carmel was celebrated at Balluta, St Julian’s. Part of the celebrations obviously included the firing of petards from a big barge that was placed in Balluta Bay, just in front of the Independence Gardens, very close to the shore. In fact, you could see people running after igniting the petards and a lot of smoke after firing.

To be honest, the quantity used in this feast was moderate. There were more colourful petards used than the big bangs one is used to hearing in other feasts. And they didn’t start early in the morning and finish late at night, so that was not so bad, but certainly, there was an amount of danger, both in the transport of the explosives themselves from shore to the barge,the storing of them and finally firing them for the enjoyment of people to watch.

Whether the barge was placed in that position according to the regulations or not, in my opinion, is immaterial. It was very close to the shore and the fact remains that, should an accident have happened, a lot of people could have suffered the consequences.

There are still another 47 feasts to be celebrated in Malta and Gozo from 5 August up to December this year (according to the Public Relations Office of the Archbishop’s Curia of the Archdiocese of Malta) including that of St Julian in less than a month’s time, followed by that of St Gregory in Sliema, soon after.

It is understood that the church has issued guidelines and instructions on how the feasts should be celebrated both inside the church and outside, for which the parish priest is held responsible. In my opinion, fireworks should be banned altogether; it is just a waste of money going up in smoke. Failing this however, all fireworks should be manufactured by competent people only, stored in a safe place under strict police supervision with frequent inspections – including, if need be, military personnel – and finally fired from a safe place, far away from habitation on land or out at sea. There should be no big bangs at all (murtali tal-bomba) and the fireworks should be fired in moderation at certain and convenient times without annoying anybody.

The banning of noise and big bangs after all, is also an act of charity with old, sick people, children and many others.

When you take all this into consideration, don’t you think that it is about time that both the Church and civil authorities get their heads together, once and for all, and issue strict instructions and regulations concerning the feasts?

As I said above, there are still many more feasts to be celebrated up to the end of this year, so what are we waiting for – another accident to happen in some form or other? Who will be answerable then, the Archbishop, the Prime Minister or both?

John G. Micallef

Sliema