'Storja taz-Zejtun Vol. I'

Author: W. R. Zahra

Publisher: Wirt iz-Zejtun/1978

Pages: 152

Till some months ago there used to be three localities called Zeitoun (or Zejtun) in the world.

But now one of them, Zeitoun, a suburb of Gaza City, is completely destroyed and reduced to rubble, its inhabitants forced to move away at the risk of famine, thirst, and never-ending bombardments.

That Zeitoun is no more.

Then there is Zeitoun, a suburb of Cairo, mostly famous in that part of the world for mass apparitions of the Blessed Virgin to Copt crowds in the 1968. 

I find it amazing that this devotion did not reach Malta.

And then there is Zejtun, our Zejtun.

In the three cases the name derives from olive oil due to the abundance of olives in these localities, at least in the past.

In a few weeks' time our Zejtun celebrates Zejt iz-Zejtun, an annual folk celebration of Zejtun's connection to olives and olive oil. The celebration is very popular not just with the people of Zejtun but also with the Maltese population in general and, coming as it does when the festa season is over, it is an occasion to commemorate the Zejtun history and traditions.

The streets of the central district are decorated with lit candles and a re-enactment commemorates the visit by the Grand Master. And there is food in abundance for all.

This book, published in 1978, is the second book on the history of Zejtun, following the 1927 trail-blazing one by E. B. Vella.

It gathers in one slim volume all the scholarship available till then with regards to the past of Zejtun, or rather to give it the name by which it was called, Terra Sanctae Catharinae.

That included what we today know as Zabbar, Marsascala, Marsaxlokk and San Tumas.

The book highlights the extraordinary amount of historical remains so much more in abundance than the rest of Malta.

After this book there have been others, many reviewed by me, published for instance by the local council.

Still, scholarship continues to advance and it would be a good thing to keep updating these volumes to take into account the conclusions of recent studies.