These days no less than 25 five Easter processions are organised across the Maltese Islands

– 15 in Malta and 10 in Gozo. But this has not always been the case and in fact the majority

began in the mid-1970s, Joseph F. Grima writes

The first references

In 1575, the Apostolic Visitor Mgr Pietro Dusina noted the custom of the blessing of Easter eggs in the villages and that in Gudja the local children were blessed on Easter Sunday. The 17th century witnessed the origin of Malta’s sole Confraternity of the Risen Christ, which was set up in the Catholic Greek Church at Valletta as a Sodality in conformity with a papal bull issued by Pope Alexander VII on 1 April 1659.

On 5 June 1892, this Sodality became a Confraternity and its members were allowed to wear, in processions, a long white tunic, a red girdle and a medallion of the Risen Christ. In 1934, the Confraternity was moved to the Jesuits Church in Valletta.

The first processions

Very probably, the first Easter procession with a statue of the Risen Christ was held from the church of the Franciscans Conventual at Valletta where there is a beautiful wooden statue imported from Rome in 1698. It replaced two previous statues, the first of which had been brought to Malta in 1640. The statue and the procession were under the care of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception and it seems that the procession was only discontinued after 1830, for reasons unknown. The statue of the Risen Christ, which is slightly smaller than life-size, is placed on the main altar during the Easter Saturday vigil and remains there throughout the following week.

The oldest known existing documentary reference of an existing Easter procession relates to that of Senglea and dates back to 1714. However, it is also said that the very first procession was the one held in Valletta, reputed to have started when the Greek parish was transferred to Valletta in the last decades of the 16th century. But there is no extant documentary evidence to corroborate this assertion and, unfortunately, various documents were destroyed when the Greek church was bombed during World War II.

It is traditionally held that the present wooden statue of the Risen Christ of Valletta is sculpted in the style of Melchior Gafà and this is cited as a further indication that the procession dates back to the 17th century. But again, this assertion is not backed by any documentary proof although, stylistically, the statue points at least to the early years of the 18th century.

Other processions

In 1741, Celestino Sacco imported a Resurrection wooden statue (by an unknown sculptor) from Naples for the Cospicua procession and documents dating to 1751 testify to the existence of a statue of the Risen Christ in Naxxar, made by Saverio Laferla in papier-mâché. Birgu also has a centuries-old tradition of an Easter procession which had probably been in existence for a long time when Bishop Labini prohibited it from being held at 2am in 1782.

The present Birgu statue was carved in wood by Salvatore Psaila in 1833 to replace the then existent effigy about which nothing is known. The present papier-mâché statue (statuary unknown) of the Qormi parish of St George – excluding the two soldiers which were added in 1891, the work of Vincenzo Cremona – is stylistically dated to at least the last decades of the 18th century while, in Rabat (Malta), a procession with the Sacred Host under a baldacchino started being held in 1771 on the Wednesday following Easter Sunday. Eventually a statue was used but the present Resurrection papier-mâché effigy dates to 1916, the work of Wistin Camilleri. The old Naxxar statue was replaced in 1946 by a papier-mâché effigy fashioned by Xandru Mallia.

The 20th century witnessed a great increase in the number of Easter processions. In Malta, new manifestations started to be organised at the following localities: the parish of St Sebastian in Qormi in 1938; Gżira in 1954; Paola in 1973; Mosta and Żebbuġ in 1976; Għargħur in 1982; Żejtun in 1984 though the statue had been exposed in the church the year before; and Baħrija in 1986. All these statues are made of papier-mâché and were produced by the following statuaries: Qormi by Carmelo Galea, but it was replaced by the present statue fashioned by Gerolamo Dingli in 1981; the Mosta, Żebbuġ and Għargħur statues by Gerolamo Dingli; Alfred Camilleri Cauchi fashioned the statues of Żejtun and Baħrija together with the present effigies at Paola (2010) and Gżira (1985) which replaced earlier works by Antonio Farrugia.

Gozo followed suit to an even greater extent. An undated papier-mâché statue existed in the Victoria parish of St George and it started to be paraded in the streets in 1985. It was subsequently replaced by a procession and a wooden statue by Alfred Camilleri Cauchi in 1997. Over the years following 1977, nine other manifestations followed with statues manufactured in papier-mâché by the following statuaries: Paul Aquilina – Żebbuġ in 1989; Alfred Camilleri Cauchi – Fontana in 1997 and Xewkija in 2009 though the statue was ready in 2008; Michael Camilleri Cauchi – Xagħra in 1977, Nadur in 1984, Qala in 1995, the Gozo Cathedral (Victoria) in 2000, Kerċem in 2002, Għarb in 2011 (though the statue had been in the church for around 25 years).

The Fontana procession takes place on the Sunday after Easter.

Music and hallelujah runs

The joyful atmosphere of Easter is accentuated by the bands that take part in the processions. They seem to have been present for well over two centuries as evidenced by the Naxxar documentary records for 1770, when 30 scudi were paid per la musica di Pascua Grande, which accounted for the Good Friday and Easter processions collectively.

In 1804 two bands accompanied the Birgu procession right into the church. The 1879 prohibition of bands from the Good Friday processions (no longer in force by the end of the century) was not extended to the Easter processions. Nowadays, some bands have sets of waltzes written especially for the Easter procession, a case in point being the set composed by Mro Nicola Montebello for St George M Band between 1920 and 1924. Other band clubs that have similar compositions include the Pinto and Anici Bands of Qormi, Nicolò Isouard Band of Mosta and 12th May Band of Żebbuġ (Malta). Other bands play joyful marches similar to those of the village feasts.

The element of joy is also shown through the Hallelujah runs with the statue of the Risen Christ, which contrasts with the slow pace of Good Friday processions although a few localities, like Mosta, prefer to give their processions a more pageant-like look. Other processions include people dressed up as Roman soldiers. However, the majority have preferred to continue the joy traditionally shown at Easter by organising a care-free and a somewhat less than solemn procession.

Running with the statue can have its dangers too: in Senglea in 1879 and in Valletta in 1998, the runners fell with their statues and damaged them. In Birgu, they still recite a popular rhyme ridiculing their Senglea neighbours for their mishap. In Xagħra, the statue is placed on a wheeled platform for the Hallelujah run to prevent any such similar mishaps.

Iconography

Naturally, the focus of attention is on the processional statue. The majority of the statues show Christ rising triumphantly from the grave with most of them carrying a banner signifying His victory over death. Some statues, however, have interesting variations.

The Valletta and Qormi (St George) statuary groups include two terrified soldiers looking at Christ, the Naxxar statue includes an angel, the Rabat (Malta) group has two soldiers and an angel while the Xewkija effigy has an angel and a soldier. The banner traditionally held aloft shows the colours of the Order of St John, a white cross on a red field, in deference to the fact that these Holy Week manifestations began during the Order’s rule.

Some statues have reversed colours but they also symbolise victory. A number of statues hold a palm frond aloft and others have Christ holding up both hands bereft of any symbol, although the Nadur statue includes a palm frond and a small cross.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Birgu organisers substituted their statue’s banner with a palm branch so as not to offend the British authorities who had just taken over the Maltese islands, in 1800. Within a few years, the original banner was back in place because it looked better and…the British authorities did not take offence at all.

Dr Grima is the author of the recently-published book Il-Vari tal-Ġimgħa Mqaddsa fil-Gżejjer Maltin and a number of other publications on Maltese history and ancillary topics