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.