Just a few days before Christmas, the Hamrun local council became the first Maltese council to win the coveted Golden Star Award of the EU programme Citizens for Europe. Its project, “From Carpineto Romano to Hamrun... One Europe”, was acclaimed as the best one from Malta and the best along with those of three EU countries. The citation said that, “The activities organised during this town twinning meeting provided an opportunity to demonstrate how common historical heritage and cultural roots can forge a strong feeling of common identity”.
The project presented by the Hamrun local council consisted of a twinning agreement with Carpineto Romano and the staging in Hamrun of the annual festival held in Carpineto Romano, known as Palio della Carriera.
This festival includes a parade of characters with costumes of the epoch, flag throwing displays, folk music, evening folk banquets in clubs and horse races. This last event is made up of a competition between the seven Rione or clubs who each support a horse. On the day of the races, the horse rider of each club has to run his horse and pick up a hanging ring with a short lance. The club whose horserider gathers the most rings and in the shortest time, wins the event. After the horse-races, all the participants gather for what is known as Cena del Cardinale (banquet of the Cardinal) which brings the Palio della Carriera to a close.
The idea of bringing over to Malta, a contingent of 150 staff with all equipment and staging this event in the town of Hamrun was thought up by Omar Bugeja, Marija Borg Mifsud, Joe C.Cordina and Rene Monsigneur, all from Hamrun, because of the contacts they had with Carpineto Romanao. Mayor Vincent Bonello and all the councillors agreed with the idea and decided to apply with the EU for the funding of the project.
The festival took place between 4 and 12 May.
The highlight of the programme was reached on the evening of 9 May when the main street of Hamrun was strewn with little pieces of rubber and turned into a racecourse for the actual horse-racing. After the horse-racing, festivities continued into the night.
And just a few weeks ago the Hamrun council received the good news that this project has been chosen for the EU Golden Star Award.. Mr Bonello was invited to lead a delegation to Brussels to be accorded the Award, at a special ceremony held on 16 December.
The other three countries which were given this award were the Municipality of Monza, Italy, the local Government of Gyomaendrod, Hungary and the Municipality of Rijeka, Croatia. Four organisations “INSIEME societa cooperative sociale”, “European Blind Union”, “Forum Voix Etouffees” and “Initiativgruppe Geschlossener Jugendwerkhof Torgau e.V.”, were also presented with the Golden Star Award for their projects.