To end this year, I share with you 3 photos of a violin and harp duo performing yesterday at Hilltop Gardens, where I am chaplain at Resurrection chapel. Sarah Spiteri is on violin and Jacob Portelli is playing the harp, both performers being Maltese. Among other selections, they played a recital of Christmas carols and a haunting Maltese composition 'Sinfonia Pastorale' by Carmelo Galea and Monti's Czardas. I tried to include a video selection, but the files were to large to include, and I had to settle for just three photos. So, here's wishing you a very Blessed, Peaceful and Healthy New Year.
Saturday 31 December 2016
Friday 30 December 2016
The Big Tip
Here is a feel-good story to end this turbulent year. It speaks to me about kindness, compassion, love and friendship. Sarah Clark was a server and bartender in a Phoenix, Arizona, restaurant, and got a shocking - but pleasant - surprise from a customer earlier this month: a $900 tip.
"You always hear about these things happening, but you never expect to be the recipient of it. It's a huge, huge help for me and my family." This was the comment from Sarah, who is nine months pregnant -- her due date is January 8 -- and she won't get any paid time off during the pregnancy, which is common in the restaurant industry. Her fiancé will temporarily be out of work too because of knee surgery.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first because it was such a high amount," she said. "Nine hundred dollars is a lot of money. It took a while for it to set in, and once it did I cried for a little while." Clark said the woman who left the big tip had been in the restaurant before and that she had talked with her several times. That's probably because Clark and the woman have a lot in common right now - the big tipper is pregnant too.
"I don't know if she really understands how much this is going to help us this season," Clark said. "Me being on maternity leave and him being out of work, we're not going to be making any income. So this is really going to help with rent and other bills and things like that." Besides the tip, the woman also left Clark with one more bit of kindness, a nice note, written right on the receipt: "This is God's money -- He gave it to us so we could give it to you. God bless." I hope we can see more of these stories in the New Year.
"You always hear about these things happening, but you never expect to be the recipient of it. It's a huge, huge help for me and my family." This was the comment from Sarah, who is nine months pregnant -- her due date is January 8 -- and she won't get any paid time off during the pregnancy, which is common in the restaurant industry. Her fiancé will temporarily be out of work too because of knee surgery.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first because it was such a high amount," she said. "Nine hundred dollars is a lot of money. It took a while for it to set in, and once it did I cried for a little while." Clark said the woman who left the big tip had been in the restaurant before and that she had talked with her several times. That's probably because Clark and the woman have a lot in common right now - the big tipper is pregnant too.
Wednesday 28 December 2016
Christmas scenes
'Nativity', a mural by John Grima at Hilltop Gardens chapel |
Some assorted
Christmas scenes today as we are getting close to the end of this year. Among
them is a full page of my photos that were printed in a Maltese Catholic
newspaper 'Lehen is-Sewwa,' on Christmas Day, the same paper where I write a full page profile of
a different person every two weeks.
Full page of my photos in a local newspaper. |
Some other images are of a baby Jesus made from wax, and a mural done by a local artist whose murals are incorporated in the Hilltop Gardens Resurrection chapel, where I celebrate Mass daily. The Christmas spirit is alive and well all over Malta with concerts, recitals, exhibitions, church services and lit-up streets that accentuate the festive season. (Click to enlarge each image)
Baby Jesus made from wax. |
More from my childhood church
Here are a few updated photos
from my childhood church, after it’s been fully decorated for the Christmas
season. One can see baby Jesus placed on the main altar, as well as lots of
flowering vetch, canary seed and other seedlings that are grown in darkness and
then displayed on altars around baby Jesus.
Angels also surround the altar as
they herald the news of Jesus’ birth with ‘Glory to God in the highest.’ The work is done by a few enthusiasts led by Niki Papagiorcopulo and Chris Micallef, who are keen on adding a few nostalgic touches and ecclesiastical paraphernalia they find hidden in the sacristy.
The main altar of St Julian's Lapsi church. |
Monday 26 December 2016
Baby Jesus times 2000
I share with you a stunning
display of images of Baby Jesus, set up as a permanent exhibition in a private
house in Birkirkara, Malta. I first was introduced to this exhibition in 2002,
and visited it with my father, incidentally just 3 days before he died. Six
years ago, the exhibition was set up as a permanent display with close to 2000
different images of Baby Jesus in various postures as you can see from these
few photos.
Some of them are made from clay, plastic, ceramic, chalk or gesso,
and some even from wax. Most of them represent the infant Jesus as he lies in
his manger, but others represent the Infant of Prague and others showing Jesus
as a toddler. The exhibition is open for the entire month of December, but is
also open to visitors on request all year round. The owner said recently that
he is trying to expand the exhibition as he is running out of room.
Family Nativity - 50 years apart
A miniature presepio I created, with some of my watercolors in the background. |
My father's presepio from the early 1970s |
Sunday 25 December 2016
Happy Christmas in 65 different languages
Here's wishing all the visitors of this blog a very Blessed and Joyous Christmas, and I repeat it in 65 different languages:
Amharic Enkwan laberhana ledat
abaqqawot
Arabic I'd Miilad Said Oua
Sana Saida
Argentinian
Felices Pascuas y Feliz
Año Nuevo
Armenian Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev
Pari Gaghand
Basque Zorionak eta Urte
Berri On!
Bohemian Vesele Vanoce
Brazilian Feliz
Natal e PrĂłspero Ano Novo
Bulgarian Tchestita Koleda OR
Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo
Chinese
[Mandarin] Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu
Shen Tan
Croatian Srecna Nova Godina I
Srecan Bozic
Czech Prejeme Vam Vesele
Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish Glædelig Jul
Dutch Vrolijk Kerstfeest
en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar
English Merry Christmas
Estonian Roomsaid
joulupuhi ja onnerikast uut aast
Eskimo Jutdlime pivdluarit
ukiortame pivdluaritlo!
Esperanto Gajan Kristnaskon
Filipino Maligayang Pasko at
manibagong bagong taon
Finnish Hyvaa joulua
At Hilltop Gardens chapel after playing a Maltese Christmas Carol |
Flemish Zalig Kerstfeest en
Gelukkig nieuw jaar
French Joyeux Noël
German Froehliche Weihnachten
Greek Kala Christouyenna
Hawaiian Mele Kelikimaka
Hebrew Mo'adim Lesimkha.
Chena tova
Hindi Shub Naya Baras
Hungarian Kellemes Karacsonyi
unnepeket
Icelandic Gledileg Jol
Indonesian
Selamat Hari Natal
Iraqi Idah Saidan Wa
Sanah Jadidah
Irish Nollaig Shona
Dhuit
Italian Buon Natale
Japanese Meri Kurisumasu
Korean Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Latin Descendit de
coelis Salvator mundi. Gaudeamus!
Latvian Prieci'gus
Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu
Lithuanian
Linksmu Kaledu
Macedonian Sreken Bozhik
Malayan Selamat Hari Natal dan
Tahun Baru
Malaysian Selamat Hari Natal
Maltese Il-Milied it-Tajjeb
Maori Meri Kirihimete
Norwegian God Jul
Polish Wesotych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia
Portuguese
Boas Festas
Rumanian Sarbatori Fericite
Russian S Rozhdestvom
Serbia Hristos se rodi
With Jake and Shaun who delivered the Christmas sermon |
Slovakian Sretan Bozic OR Vesele
vianoce
Samoan La
Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
Sardinian Bonu
nadale e prosperu annu nou
Serb-Croatian
Sretan
Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina
Singhalese Subha
nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Slovak Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok
Spanish Feliz
Navidad
Swahili Heri kwa noeli na baraka nyingi kwa mwaka mpya.
Swedish God
Jul
Tahitian La
Orana No Te Noere
Thai Sawadee Pee Mai
Tongan Kilisimasi
Fiefa & Ta'u fo' ou monu ia
Turkish Noeliniz
Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian Srozhdestvom
Kristovym
Urdu Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
Vietnamese
Chung
Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh Nadolig Llawen
Saturday 24 December 2016
Christmas Cards in 3D
In one of the many exhibitions going on in
Malta, I came across a display of traditional and vintage Christmas cards reproduced in
watercolors in a 3D format. They were all placed in a square box with each
scene having 4 to 5 layers at different spacing, to create a 3D effect.
The artist George Apap next to some of his 3D Christmas Cards |
The
artist is George Apap and he happened to be there when I was visiting. These
are just 3 of the 30 Cards reproduced. Since I've been dong watercolors myself, I was mesmerized by the intricacy and detail of the work produced. If anyone is interested to see more,
please send me an e-mail at dungiljan@gmail.com and I will be happy to send a
copy of the others. A Blessed Christmas to all visitors of this blog.
Boy and girl reading the Christmas story |
The traditional Christmas sermon delivered by an altar-boy |
Friday 23 December 2016
Christmas in Malta - part 2
Yet another facade of a house decorated for Christmas |
Christmas trees and Christmas
cards are also popular in Malta, although the main emphasis is always on baby
Jesus. Santa Claus is called Father Christmas here and he has the same
attraction for children, although not as frenetic and believable as in the USA. Nearly in every town and village a
procession is held with children carrying a small statue of baby Jesus and
singing Christmas carols along the way. This is held in 66 parishes around
Malta and Gozo, usually on Christmas Eve. In every parish church in Malta and
Gozo during midnight Mass a small child, dressed as an altar-server, recites a
sermon narrating the birth of Christ. Recently a boy and a girl (or 2 boys) alternate the
sermon, memorized to perfection.
Shaun and Jake, the 2 boys delivering the Christmas Eve sermon. |
Christmas offers a splendid
occasion for family gatherings. In most houses an attractively decorated
Christmas tree is put up beneath which are placed the various presents wrapped
in colorful paper. Christmas pudding and turkey dinner became popular during
the first and second world wars when thousands of sailors and soldiers from the
British Empire were stationed in Malta. Prior to these wars a rooster, rather
than turkey, was the bird to be served at Christmas dinner. The traditional
Christmas banquet normally includes the delicious Maltese dish called timpana,
backed macaroni covered with crusty pastry. A special kind of honey-and treacle
rings (qaghaq tal-ghasel) are eaten during the Christmas festivities. Mince
pies are also very popular and they are this blogger’s favorites.
An old tradition that survived up
to this day is the sowing of vetch, wheat, grain and canary seed (gulbiena) on
clots of cotton in flat pans four weeks before Christmas and nurtured in the
darkness of cupboards in the kitchen. These seeds shoot up and remain as white
as Santa’s beard. They are then placed next to the infant Jesus and around the
crib.
Our family's Baby Jesus with gulbiena, which my father decorated before 2002 |
A custom which unfortunately
vanished many years ago was the playing of bagpipes. They
characterized the music of the shepherds who tended their flock on Christmas
night. The midnight Mass is very popular among the Maltese, and choirs rehearse
constantly for their participation. The most popular Christmas carol in Maltese
is “Ninni la tibkix izjed” (Sleep, don’t cry anymore) written in 1846 by Andrew
Schembri. I was happy to teach this carol to American children in Baker City
and Bend, Oregon, and they sang it beautifully in Maltese, plus two English
verses which I wrote for them. Pageants and plays about the nativity are also
quite popular. The Christmas season ends around January 6, the
feast of the Epiphany, and that’s when all the decorations are finally taken
down.
Wednesday 21 December 2016
Christmas in Malta - part 1
A typical presepio or Nativity depicting the scene of the birth of Jesus. |
We are not likely to have a white
Christmas in Malta. Weather conditions resemble those of Bethlehem, the
birthplace of Christ. The temperature during the Christmas season fluctuates
from a maximum of 66 degrees Fahrenheit to a minimum of 52 on very cold day. Christmas
is Christmas everywhere, but there are certain characteristics that make a Maltese
Christmas different from that of many other countries.
The streets of towns and villages
are decorated and lit with multicolored lights (festuni). Shop windows display
the usual Christmas decorations and a large variety of toys and presents to
lure Christmas shoppers who jam the streets. Christmas trees (is-sigra
tal-Milied) and the figure of Father Christmas (Santa Claus) are seen all over
the place. The main feature, which is a typically Maltese tradition, is the
number of cribs (presepji) that can be seen in public places and in private
homes, and of course in churches.
The first Maltese crib we know of
is that found at the Benedictine Nuns in Mdina and bears on its framework the
year 1826. The main characters in the crib are naturally Joseph and Mary with
baby Jesus together with the cow, the donkey and the sheep; some shepherds and
the three Kings who will arrive on the feast of the Epiphany. However many
people display just the baby Jesus sitting on a rock or sleeping. An incredible
display of baby Jesuses is found in an all-year round Museum in Birkirkara with
hundreds of images, some of which are a few hundred years old.
The Holy Family after Jesus' birth. |
Traditionally, the crib figurines
(pasturi) were made of clay. These fragile penny clay figurines were easily
acquired few years ago. Nowadays modern plastic figurines are more commonly
found in the Maltese family crib. Many crafty enthusiasts prepare quite an
elaborate display of the town of Bethlehem, and are usually on display
throughout the month of December in various homes, parish centers and other
places of interest.
A popular tradition is the
Christmas Novena, 9 days of preparation during which a sung Mass is celebrated
in churches, with the focus being on a different character from the Nativity
story each day, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, Shepherds, Kings, baby
Jesus, etc. Many children participate in this Novena, especially by singing
Christmas carols.
Christmas in my childhood church
St Julian's old church decorated for Christmas 2016 |
Today I invite you to visit the
church where my parents were married, where all of us 5 children were baptized,
where I served thousands of Mass and where I celebrated hundreds of Masses,
known as the St Julian’s old church, referred to as Lapsi (Ascension) church –
as it is decorated for this Christmas.
You can see the contrast between the present photo and the black and white
photo taken in 1965 during the feast of Corpus Christi with the large canopy
above the main altar, which was brought back to life to enhance the decorations
done by a group of enthusiasts, led by Chris Micallef and Niki Papagiorcopulo.
An updated photo will appear next week, when baby Jesus will be in place.
The same church decorated in 1965 for Corpus Christi |
The
50-year old Nativity made from Styrofoam, known as jablo in Malta is still a
popular attraction. The statues of the Holy Family and other miniature
presepios adorn the side-altars, while angels hover above everyone in the
front, in the back and by the main altar. Please do click on each photo to enlarge and see a better resolution.
50 year old Nativity made from Styrofoam or jablo, still in good shape. |
The Holy Family on one of the side altars of the old Lapsi Church. |
Tuesday 20 December 2016
More Christmas Lights from Malta
A decorated street in the town of Mosta. |
These are only a few photos of
street decorations at night. The electricity bill must be exorbitant during
these weeks, but people don’t care as long as they cheer themselves and
everyone who passes by their houses and drive or walk through these colorfully lit streets. The Government and some local Councils help defray the cost of the electricity bill, but private homes are on their own.
A Baroque church in Sliema framed by lit stars, photo taken from Valletta |
Tomorrow we’ll visit inside some of the churches that are dressed
at their finest during these weeks with the nativity prominently displayed and
plenty of presepios to admire and appreciate. The presepio is the nativity or crèche
or crib, and other ways to describe it but the original term is presepio and
presepju in Maltese, depicting usually the entire town of Bethlehem.
The main street in Valletta, crowded with holiday shoppers |
Monday 19 December 2016
Christmas Decorations around Malta
Over the next few days, I will be
sharing information and photos from Malta about the way the Maltese decorate
for Christmas. Since I have not been in Malta at Christmas time for quite some
time, I have noticed a lot more decorations and lights outside. And in spite of
a stormy weekend we’ve just experienced, the lights are still there, flickering
and embellishing the atmosphere for this festive season. I am still thankfully impressed
though that the religious aspect is still very prevalent, and many exhibitions
are held of different nativities and presepios, which are crafted by several
individuals, and are truly a work of art. Lots of hours go into creating these
masterpieces, and you will see some of them over the next two weeks.
But today
we focus on a bright Christmas tree erected next to the Parliament building in
Valletta, the capital city. I took these photos during the day and at night, to
see the contrast, and the beauty light creates. The colorful balls were crafted in Malta by a company called Mdina Glass and contains 2,000 glass balls. The tree has been erected every year since 2011, alternating both in Sliema and Valletta.
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