Mary's Nativity

A silver altar-piece at Naxxar parish church, depicting the birth of Mary.

Today we celebrate the feast of the birthday of the Blessed Mother. She was conceived in St Anne’s womb on December 8th, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and to follow the duration of a human pregnancy, the church celebrates her birth date today. Many countries, including Italy and Spain as well as Malta, celebrate this holy day with images and statues of the baby Mary, although the statues venerated in Malta are that of a young girl, all of which known as Maria Bambina (the little child Mary.) The feast of the Nativity started in the 5th century when a basilica was built in Jerusalem where St Anne lived and where Mary was born, traditionally around 12 BC. Saints Joachim and Anne have their own feast on July 26, but today we honor Mary’s birthday. Imagine the joy to see this little girl being born, in the obscurity of her town, with no Angels, no shepherds, no Kings, but that’s because she didn’t want to take the attention from her Son, who would be born 16 years later. It is the titular feast of the parish where I am serving, and the church is beautifully decorated with all its gold and silver on display. A procession will be held tonight through the streets of the town of Naxxar to honor Mary. The same feast is celebrated in 3 other towns, Senglea, Mellieha and Xagħra, Gozo. In Malta, we also commemorate the occasion of two major victories at war. The first one was the victory of the Maltese and the Knights of Malta against the Turks, the Ottoman Empire in 1565, and the second one was the end of Fascism and Nazism at the height of World War II, a time of terrible suffering for the Maltese people.