Tuesday 1 June 2021

Festa season

Inside St Helen's church in Birkirkara, Malta

Once again, the festa season in Malta has been suspended, because of the Covid-19 situation. Churches are open with limited seating, with people still having to wear masks, and Masses are being celebrated, along with the ones televised daily. But the festa season, with its colorful banners, noisy evenings with marching bands and fireworks, plenty of statues lining up various streets, and the procession with the main statue of the titular saint of each parish – they’re all suspended. 

The same church with banners decorating the streets

The number of cases at the moment are very encouraging with 2 to 4 cases on average daily, and a total of 66 active cases presently. The number of people dying of Covid has been a steady 419 for the past two weeks, and hospitalisation is down to 3 cases. Still the health authorities are very cautious in letting mass events start again, to avoid another wave like the one that hit is unexpectedly earlier this year. Airports will be open from today, yet people arriving in Malta have to provide a negative test, and proof of the double vaccination. In the meantime, I will still go back to my hundreds of photos from past feasts and share them with you. These are just two from the parish of Birkirkara, dedicated to St. Helena.

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