It is a national holiday and the biggest feast day in Malta. Santa Maria is celebrated in the streets of six towns across the islands. Here in Gozo, the festival takes place at the ancient Citadel in Victoria. People gather to party and pay homage to their female deity. The celebration starts at dusk when a life-sized statue of Santa Maria is carried out of the church on the backs of six dutiful and devout men who tour the effigy throughout the city streets, followed by a line-up of bishops, priests, and clergy men and a local marching band. It is a long, sweaty parade.After touring the streets for a few hours the back-broken men carry the statue into the church, lit up like the Griswold Family home in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. An impressive show of fireworks further lights the sky as hundreds crowed Victoria’s square to welcome their patron mother with fervent applause, and a somewhat drunken rendition of Ave Maria.
The party continues in the town streets, until the wine has run out and the beer tap is dry. Johnny’s hot dog stand makes a killing, and a line up of ice cream trucks can’t scoop fast enough to keep up with hungry patrons.
Il festa-tajba.
