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More Music for the Saints: Religious Feasts in Malta
| Article
# : |
17977 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1990 |
3,684 Words |
| Author
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Jeremy Boissevain
Jeremy Boissevain is professor of social anthropology at the
University Amsterdam and has taught at universities in the
United States, Canada, Britain and Malta. He is the former
mission chief of CARE in the Philippines, Japan, India, and
Malta. He has done field research on local power relations,
immigrant adjustment, tourism ethnic entrepreneurs and,
currently, ritual change in Malta, Sicily, Montreal and
Amsterdam. In addition to many articles, he has written or
edited eight books, most recently Dutch Dilemmas (1989). He is
currently editing a book on ritual change in Holland. Besides
his writings in English and Dutch, his works have appeared in
French, Italian and Japanese. |
Each year, form May through September, the inhabitants of the small island of Malta stage approximately seventy-five spectacular three-day festas (religious feasts) to honor local patron saints. During these exuberant celebrations - accompanied by religious processions, brass-band marches, rowdy demonstration, and concerts - hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fireworks are shot into the sky.
What explains this fervent and spectacular devotion to saints and fireworks? What does it show in the face of increasing secularization? This article is set out to show that as industrialization and modernization affect interpersonal relations and erode community boundaries in Malta, villagers do battle with ritual weapons to defend the traditional values that they cherish.
Malta's past and present
The inhabitants of the Maltese archipelago - located below Sicily and composed of Malta, Gozo, Comino, and the uninhabited islet of Filfla - have always been devout. Christianity came to Malta early. Each year the Maltese celebrate the apostolic origin of their Catholic faith - St. Paul is popularly believed to have converted the whole island in A.D. 60 when he was shipwrecked there, as recorded in Acts 27-28.
The Maltese have known many foreign masters. After the Romans came the Muslims, followed buy the Normans, Swabians, Angovins, Aragonese, and the Castillians. In 1530, Emperor Charles V placed Malta under father sovereign military order of St. John of Jerusalem, a powerful body of celibate nobles. These "Knights of Malta" constructed the fortified capital city of Valletta, over looking the Grand Harbour. Its fortification and palaces are still extant. Under its rule, Malta evolved from rocky outpost populated by poor peasants to relatively prosperous island state linked by cultural, commercial, and strategic interest to Europe.
The paternalistic rule of the Knights came to an abrupt end even when Napoleon drove them from the islands in 1798. In an eight-day span, he implemented many drastic changes, which upset the Maltese greatly. His attempt to curtail the influence of the church, leading him to try to seize the Carmelite church in Mdina, caused the Maltese to break out into revolt. With the help of the British, the Maltese blockaded the port, isolating and starving the French, who finally capitulated to the British in September 1800.
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