Carnival festivities and celebrations were introduced to Malta with the arrival of the Order of the Knights of St John in the 1500s and have continually evolved since then. Although we retain certain traditions from those times, such as il-parata and il-qarċilla, what has mainly been passed on to us from our forefathers is the celebration itself - having fun and taking oneself less seriously over those six days of Carnival.

For Dr Valerie Visanich, lecturer in sociology at the Junior College and the University of Malta, Carnival is more complex than a mere celebration, mainly because it has different facets composed by different kinds of people. She describes Carnival as an eclectic mix of social meanings for different social groups, whether for the enthusiastic active participants who contribute significant amounts of time, money and effort, or the young people who look forward to weekending in Gozo, and even to the child who is passively made to parade in fancy, elaborate costumes with no understanding of it all.

"For dedicated activists who spend long hours throughout the year meeting at the warehouse, the Carnival contributes to their sense of identity and belonging. Il-maħżen acts as a kind of club for all enthusiasts, with very similar attributes to il-maħżen tal-festa - it is a place of informal familiarity and sociability.

"Dedicated activists are caught up in the same web of meanings and a feeling of collective effervescence, equally affectionate and share a sense of identity that is produced when referring to their team - Aħna tal-Kaptan. The carnival provides them a space to celebrate not only their artistic creations but also themselves," explains Dr Visanich.

She adds that it may be too naive to regard the Carnival as a source of social cohesion for everyone and uses the Nadur Carnival as an example since celebrations there have taken on completely different form and function.

According to Dr Visanich, "This Carnival is not about parading the group efforts and work, but is more a series of individualistic affairs that come together in a makeshift, disorganised parade where the distinction between the spectator and participant is blurred. Rather than having a team working all year round to exhibit their work, you get a small group of revellers in the village seeking to escape from their normative behaviour by showing off their new risqué self for the night.

"It is their chance to participate in an alcohol fuelled street party and for some, in anti-social behaviour, that contrasts sharply with the relatively strong traditional reality of this Gozitan village."

 

The Carnival of today and tomorrow

In the meantime Arts Council Malta is working on making Carnival traditions more accessible to more people, which is also one of the purposes of the Carnival Village in Marsa, planned to start operating in 2018. The concept of the Village will not only be giving the opportunity for float enthusiasts to finally have a proper home but will also help in making them work in less secrecy and decrease the competition there is between them.

Carnival artistic director Jason Busuttil explains, "The Carnival Village will have an open door policy. Tourists will be visiting it year-round and they will be able to watch the float makers at work. The previous competition between float makers has decreased a lot."

For the first time, this year's Carnival activities exposed children from four different schools to the craft of building floats from scratch in one of the actual workshops used by the float makers. The students enjoyed the session and some of them even expressed a wish to contribute more to the Carnival.

This is only the beginning to more similar activities which will be carried out throughout the year in the Carnival Village. The Village will include lessons, all year round, for children and adults on working with papier-mâché and making floats.

 

Carnival novelties

During Carnival hours, at the entrance of Pjazza Teatru Rjal there will an exhibition of miniature floats, and of floats made of sweets. There will also be ongoing workshops for anyone, especially children, interested in how floats are made. They will have the opportunity to put their hands at work and create their own floats, paint masks and work with clay.

The Carnival will also be extended to Main Street, Hamrun on Sunday morning involving bands, satirical, grotesque masks and, of course, floats. These then will proceed to Valletta to participate in the afternoon Carnival parade.

After an absence of 20 years a live marching band will accompany the show taking place on Sunday afternoon at St George's Square.

 

The coming days' programme

 

Sunday, 7 February

10am: Carnival Band Parade in High Street, Hamrun

1pm: Carnival Floats Parade starting from Castille Place, Valletta

3pm: Special Sunday afternoon Carnival Grand Show at St George's Square, Valletta

 

Monday, 8 February

10am: Dancing Schools Carnival Parade followed by a dance show at St George's Square, Valletta

4pm: Dancing Competition Programme followed by the Grand Défilé at St George's Square, Valletta

 

Tuesday, 9 February

10am: Dancing Schools Carnival Parade followed by a Dancing Show at  Pjazza Teatru Rjal, Valletta

6pm: Grand Finale in St Anne's Street with the participation of Carnival bands and floats