Most parishes in Malta have a band club that plays joyous and festive marches during the festivity of the local titular saint. They also go to other parishes to entertain the locals on certain weekends. Here in Naxxar parish, where I am stationed, there are two band clubs, Peace Band Club and Victory Band Club, both of which have their own premises, clubs, bars, snooker room and beautifully decorated walls and ceilings. There isn’t here the fiery rivalry you find in other towns and villages, where they also have two competing clubs. But they do compete against each other in a subtle way – they do this about the fireworks they display, the number of musicians in each club, and other issues which sometimes are too silly to even mention. They also seem to compete on the decorations that cove the entire façade of each club. This is splendidly decked up in its festive best during the two weeks leading to the festivity of the Nativity of Mary, celebrated on September 8th.
You can see for yourselves what I mean by admiring these two photos. Peace Band Club is displayed first, with their predominant color being blue, with Victory Band Club being displayed next, with their main color being red. It is truly a labor love, even just to set the pieces in place, and hope it doesn’t rain and turn windy, as unfortunately it is doing this week. Three other parishes celebrate the feast of the Nativity of Mary, celebrated tomorrow, also known in Malta as Our Lady of Victory. On this day, besides the birth of the Blessed Mother, we commemorate the victory of the Knights of Malta over the Turkish Armada during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565.We also remember the end of Fascism and Nazism at the height of World War II, a time of terrible suffering for the Maltese people.
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