Id-dwejjaq tal-Istilla

Dawn is-siltiet li gejjin huma mehudha mill-website ufficcjali tal-parrocca ta' San Gorg - MHUX MINN WEBSITE TA' PARTIT JEW BANDA IZDA MINN WEBSITE TAL-KNISJA BIL-BARKA TAL-ARCIPRIET GARAWELLU.

Il-kummenti jixhdu d-dwejjaq li jaqbadhom dawn in-nies meta tasal il-festa nazzjonali ta' Santa Marija. Ma jifilhuhiex. Biex niftehemu mhux kullhadd huwa hekk. Kulhadd ghandu kull dritt li jkun ma' tal-Istilla jew ma ta' Ljun izda jien cert li hemm hafna stilel li, minghajr ma jissimpatizzaw ma' ta' Ljun, igawdu l-festa ta' Santa Marija u jkollhom tbissima sinciera fuq wicchom.

Mhux hekjk jista' jinghad ghal Garawellu u ta' madwaru. Ma niskantax li dan l-arcipriet missier il-gidba u fanatiku u fundamentalista jhalli affarijiet hekk johorgu fuq il-website ufficcjali imma NISKANTA KIF L-ISQOF IHALLI DAN KOLLU GHADDEJ QISU QATT MA' GARA XEJN. IL--HUTA MINN RASHA TINTEN U JEKK L-ISQOF MA JIEHUX AZZJONI HUWA KOMPLICI TA' DIN IL-PORKERIJA.

Insomma aqraw ftit dawn is-siltiet ha taraw id-dwejjaq u l-ugiegh ta' zaqq. Kif jghid il-Malti- "min ikollu zaqqu tugghu iboss". Veru website li minnha johrog l-ispirtu nisrani u ta' ghaqda !!!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007:Festive Santa Marija weekend

As on any other festive day, St George’s basilica is today a hub of popular concourse. People, including Midsummer Day trippers to Gozo, are flocking to Mass in keeping with the Catholic obligation of the day. Mgr Joseph Farrugia, archpriest, presided at solemn concelebrated Mass with the Collegiate Chapter and preached on the Christological, Ecclesiological and Mariological significance of the Assumption. The first Mass of the day was at 5.00am. Masses are continuing on the hour with the last one being late in the evening.
Meanwhile the festivities continue today with band marches and a procession with the titular statue of the Cathedral church. Magnificent fireworks displays are expected late into the night. These displays constitute what is perhaps the main attraction of these Gozitan festivities although a large number of Gozitans actually cross over to Malta to view the more sumptuous displays at Mosta and Mqabba.
The Santa Marija festivities end tonight. The external activities, organized by the Leone Band Club, had their real beginning when a crowd materialized in arterial Triq ir-Repubblika and It-Tokk late on Monday night and signaled the first activity of wide popular appeal connected with the festa.
While the splendour of the Cathedral church is in full display to the delight of the congregations that gather for the liturgical functions, the corresponding attractiveness of the external decorations is in fact distilled in the colourful though repetitive late night fireworks displays.
Cathedral priest Rev. George Mercieca, poet and fireworks aficionado, wrote in today’s The Sunday Times to invite people not to miss these displays.
The Administrative Council of St George’s is opening the roof of the Parish House for those who wish to view them from its unique vantage point.



Thursday, August 16, 2007:Commentary: Hilarious Times!

As the saying goes, “it takes all sorts to make a world”! One can say without any shadow of doubt that, “It takes all sorts to make a feast!”: the Victoria version of the “Santa Marija” one that is!
According to a The Times reporter, evidently labouring under the midsummer sun, which the Bard closely associates with “mental revelry” that, in simpler language for lesser mortals like ourselves, means madness, it has earned the enviable appellation of the “feast of snakes, budgies, horses, cabbages and (wonder of wonders) men”!
In this politically correct age, one would have expected the all-encompassing term “persons”! Could it be that the reporter was of the feminine kind, with eyes only for the strong strain of the human species?! Whatever the case, females have been mercifully spared the notorious association with snakes, this time round at least!
A splash of photos spread in the centre of Malta's prestigious English language daily and an accompanying backpage one says it all: well-behaved festa-outfit animal and bird species, riotous human species! After all, madness is the prerogative of the rational species, is it not?!
The photographer must have had a field day, as the results of the photographic endeavours show: gaping mouths, up-turned faces glistening with sweat, hands wide apart thrust as if in a gesture of total surrender (reminding me of the mediaeval mystic Margery Kempe under “a cloud of unknowing” – without the mystical connotations, of course), white and blue coloured balloons - all under the watchful gaze of a huge papier-mâché lion enjoying his moment in front of the bronze doors of St George’s basilica.
Chesterton’s famous lines pop to mind “Fools, I also had my hour” - with due apologies to the master of paradox and the humble donkey – “my finest hour, with swaying balloons in front of me, adoring crowd at my feet, frenzied shouting in my ears, and melodious pealing of bells over my head!”
What better way to enliven the torpor of “Santa Marija”, the midsummer holiday? Really and truly there’s never a dull moment. We had no livestock during this year’s agrarian show – at least not in literal terms. Precautions against the foot-and-mouth epidemic gripping the UK were wisely taken. Yet… Carry on with the goodies….