Easter in Malta

The weather has turned cold again and on Easter Monday we are having rain and wind here in Marsaxlokk.  Yesterday the boats were tossing on their moorings and the tourists at the market were complaining because it is warmer in England than Malta at the moment.  

I have had my cousin, Jennifer, and her daughter, Helen, visiting me from Luton and we have enjoyed three full days.  The photo that heads the post was taken at the Good Friday procession in Zejtun.  My good neighbours, who live in the flat below me, had given me the best places to go on the different days of Easter.  Zejtun is well known for the stunning costumes and the breadth of the Christ story told through the procession so we walked up through the valley from Marsaxlokk and arrived at the church soon after the parade had started to emerge.  We were able to locate the church by the sound of the clackers from the steeple.  On Good Friday, the bells are not used.

The square and street outside the church were packed and after getting our bearings from one side of the church door where we could just see the plumes of the Roman centurions over the heads of the crowd we decided to walk around the band to the other side.  The pavement was so full that we were struggling to find our way through.  We paused momentarily opposite the church doors and bought a pastizzi and then decided to cut off down a side street and see if we could find a better spot further down the processional route.

As you can see from the photo of the garden of Gethsemane, we found a great spot and were able to see the procession from the beginning.  It must have taken two hours for everyone to pass us and the costumes were very beautiful and represented a whole range of biblical characters.  The children were particularly delightful and as with carnival they gradually shifted from looking pious and shy at the beginning to mischievous and bold as the procession wound on.  One small boy lead a shoat and the little girl at his side had a cage with white doves.

The people carrying the heavy statues have a different technique from the bearers in Catania for the feast of St Agatha and adopt a rhythmic, wide-spaced stride that they coordinate with each other.  They have no padding on their shoulders for the poles and it was clear that some of the carriers were very tired even by the time they reached our point in the route.  The white robed figures were occasionally spelled by stand-ins from the crowd.

We had a bit of a challenge to find the bus stop after the parade had passed because Zejtun was closed to traffic but eventually we tracked it down and found a bus for the short trip back to Marsaxlokk.

For the rest of the weekend we explored Birgu, Valletta and Tarxien and I'll write about that in my next post.  This might be the last day I have internet access at home so my next post might be from the cafe on the front at Marsaxlokk where I used to post from when I first arrived.