Summer is well on its way and just like any other year our villages have already started planning and organising their yearly parish feasts. Fireworks, street decorations and local band clubs collaborate to pay homage to the patron saint of their village or city and the local community is brought together or split further apart by the rivalries these annual feasts create.
As an enthusiast and as one of the people involved in the Balluta parish feast, I know first-hand how much work and effort the volunteers involved in these activities do all year round. Literally, tens of hours are dedicated to organise fund-raising activities to finance the expenses of these feasts and make sure that everything is organised to very last detail. Sometimes, money is even forked out of personal pockets to be donated towards these causes. This work, many times goes unnoticed.
However, the culmination of our work comes to fruition in the festa week when we see our beloved statue paraded in our streets, the local band club accompanying it with a selection of Malta’s finest anthems and fireworks filling the skies. At that point, it’s all worth the hassle, blood, sweat and tears.
Last but not least, lest we forget – these feasts, although they are now part of our cultural heritage, are religious activities in which the main events should be a religious one focused on paying honour to the patron saint through prayer.
In the light of the above, I would like to first and foremost thank all those volunteers who keep afloat the cultural traditions associated with the local feasts year in year out. Secondly, I’d like to pay tribute to all those dedicated men and women who lost their lives in fireworks factory accidents. Lastly I would like to encourage the general public to participate, enjoy and support their local village feasts because these are the sort of events that make every other country around the world envious of our tiny little gem.
Religious extremism
As a side note, even though in Malta we enjoy prosperity and peace, religious extremism is causing deep distress to many innocent people.
Neighbouring Mediterranean countries such as Syria are facing huge problems. Militant jihadist groups occupy large chunks of territory in Syria. Some of these terrifying groups have executed masses of innocent civilians who have not joined the jihad cause, and have been labelled as being worse than al-Qaeda. Images of these atrocities are shocking and appalling.
Furthermore, they are now threatening to further the jihadist cause in mainland Europe and targeting, through terrorism, the US, the UK, Italy and more EU countries. I hope and pray every single day that peace and prosperity will once again reign in these regions.