The Feast of St. Catherine of Zurrieq

My hometown, Jersey City, is one of the oldest settlements in New Jersey. The city has a lot of firsts, including the oldest Italian parish in New Jersey. For four days every August, the parishioners at the Holy Rosary Church organized a festival to celebrate their patron saint. The Feast, as it was commonly called, was a religious event with an accompanying street and music festival. The feast culminated with a high mass on August 14th and a procession through the neighborhood with a statue of Our Lady. At its peak, the parish included 20,000 Italian parishioners, making the Feast one of the most popular neighborhood events in the area.

Throughout the decades, the city’s demographic changed. The parish’s influence over the community waned considerably. The organizer “rebranded” the Feast to La Festa Italiana to broaden its reach. When we first moved to Jersey City, our neighbors told us La Festa is one of Jersey City’s best cultural festivals and not to be missed. So when I attended La Festa Italiana for the first time last year, I was shocked by how far the festival has strayed from its original roots. Both the religious and the cultural components of this festival have been diluted. Besides a rosary seller and a parish-run zeppole stand, I struggled to understand this as a cultural festival. The fair was populated with your typical roving festival merchants and spoke little to the unique culture of Jersey City, let alone the city’s Italian American heritage.

The Feast of Saint Catherine

Fast forward three weeks to our trip to the island nation of Malta, I was more than excited when I read that traditional village feasts (or festa) are integral to Maltese culture. Malta took Roman Catholicism very seriously as the most religious nation in the European Union. According to a few surveys, over 94% of Maltese professed their religious adherence and proclaimed the importance of faith in their daily life. From a small village of a couple of hundred inhabitants to sizable towns like Mosta, just about every Maltese village is organized around its enormous parish churches. These fests are not only religious in nature, but they are also a matter of civic pride and fierce rivalries.

Centuries ago, these parish celebrations were the rare occasions for villages to gather and enjoy live music on the feast day for their patron saint. Most of Malta’s traditional feasts occurred in the summer, particularly in the month of July and August. For a population of about half a million, Malta has about one hundred village festa celebrated every year. Even during our week-long visit in early September, we had many options: Qawra, Sliema, Naxxar Xaghra, Mellieha, and Zabbar. After extensive research, I decided on the Feast of Saint Catherine in Żurrieq for our quintessential Maltese festa experience.

Flags of Malta, the Knights of Saint John, and the festival of Saint Catherine.

After our debacle with the rental cars at the airport, we were glad to enjoy the freedom that a car afforded us. After a short visit to the seaside town of Birżebbuġa, we made our way to Żurrieq in anticipation of the huge celebration. The physical approach to the village was dramatic. From the outskirts of the village, what stood out immediately were the plethora of flag poles and massive flags. As you can see in the photo above, these flags are massive. They are reminiscent of the sizes at an American car dealership. The flag poles adorn the government buildings and business and private residences.

People always think Americans are in love with flags of all kinds, but Maltese took it to a whole other level. As a secret vexillologist, I have always been fascinated by the role of flags in culture and what they symbolize, both the good and the bad within a culture. I have never encountered a flag extravaganza like this, especially one authentic and spontaneous. Among the prominently displayed flags were the national flag of Malta, the local parish, and the Knights Hospitaller of Malta. But the most spectacular among them would be the flags dedicated to the patron saint and the festa.

Zurrieq’s parish church is the Matrix Parish Church of St Catherine of Alexandria, dedicated to the 3rd-century martyr. The center of the town was decked out with more elaborate red banners and festive garland. But oddly enough, the streets were eerily empty. Today was the actual feast day, the culmination of week-long festivities. Where are all the people? Maybe we were just here a little bit too early? Each village festa has its own schedule but generally follows a similar one. The actual feast day and the day preceding it were supposed to be the busiest days of celebration. Before our trip, I spent several hours to see whether I could track the festival schedule.

Given that COVID regulations were still in place, I was unsure how the celebration would be pared back. In the end, I did manage to track down a schedule on the Facebook page of Żurrieq’s St Catherine’s Fireworks Factory. I managed to translate the schedule from Maltese, but I realized it was only a firework schedule, not a comprehensive schedule for the whole week. Maybe 2021 was still not the best time to experience a Maltese festa. We arrived at the village around 6 pm and decided to wait until nightfall to see whether the activities would pick up eventually. The church was packed to the brim because of the feast day's high mass.

Without appropriate clothing, we did not enter the church. Instead, we stood outside of the main door to observe the mass. We were definitely not the only ones, as many locals came and went. Even though there wasn’t much of a crowd outside the church, the elaborate statues telling the history of Saint Catherine were magnificent. It shows us how much artistic effort went into celebrating their patron saint. Saint Catherine was a young daughter of an Egyptian governor and was put to death for evangelizing the Christian faith. Her martyrdom inspired Joan of Arc more than a millennium later.

Her other claim of fame was the fact that she was put to death by wheeling, a form of capital punishment that seemed so bizarre to the modern era. Nearly all paintings of Saint Catherine hanging in churches include a visual reference to a broken wheel. Of course, Saint Catherine’s wheels are a common motif in this parish church. I have often found it somewhat amusing that the image of ancient barbarity is prominently displayed. But I supposed the story of martyrdom has always been central to the story of Christianity.

Two hours had passed since we first arrived. To my dismay, no crowd ever materialized. I have tacitly accepted the fact that this may be it. Our Maltese festa was not meant to be due to the virus. To get an idea of just how crazy Festa could get in the years past, the video below was from exactly two years ago, the last Festa before the pandemic. The energy and passion of the crowd were so fanatic and electrifying. It also contrasted sharply with the overt commercialization at La Festa Italiana. Even though I may not understand all the chanting exactly, the importance of festa is self-evident.

Of course, the video also reminded me just how unrealistic I was to think this kind of gathering would be permitted during the time of COVID. Although Malta had the highest vaccination rate in Europe, the government remained vigilant. I can only hope that the tradition of the Maltese festa will be preserved for future generations. Even though we have only been in Malta for two days, the passion of Maltese people is unmistakable. Even though the crowd did not materialize, it dampened my excitement. It made me want to come back a few years from now when the pandemic was a thing of the past.

Just before sunset, the church’s festive lighting turned on. Instead of floodlights, illumination with individual light bulbs seems the norm. The visual of the lit church is unmistakable Maltese. It certainly recalls the aesthetics of Sicily. By then, we have been in Żurrieq for about two hours. Surprisingly, the same mass was still proceeding. It amazed me just how patient parishioners are. I still held up the hope perhaps the parade of the statue of Saint Catherine would still be happening.

Fireworks & Band Club

At 8 pm, a small crowd of locals gathered on the church's steps. As indicated in the schedule online, the fireworks display commenced. The display began with a series of salutes, which produced loud sounds rather than visual effects. The sound resembled military artillery and seemed to signal a call of attention for the larger show. Afterward, a larger display commenced and continued for another half hour. But unlike your typical fireworks display, the fireworks were fired at intervals. It was not unusual if several minutes passed between the firing. The firework display was quite underwhelming. It was certainly not the festive display I imagined or saw in videos of past years. At some point, Brian and I looked at each other and wondered aloud whether we just had waited several hours for this lackluster show.

Waiting for the firework on the steps of the parish church.

As we wondered how much longer we should linger, a local man struck up a conversation and explained how much COVID has impacted the nature of Maltese Festa. Although it was no comfort to Brian and me, it was also somewhat comforting that it was not due to my poor planning. He mentioned the “real" fireworks display would start at none. He then suggested we could get to the rooftop terrace to get the best view of the fireworks. Although I tend to be quite adventurous, I hesitated to barge in on our own. While we were debating, the same man came by and told us to follow him up the elevator of the band hall to the roof terrace.

One unique feature of a Maltese Festa is their parish band. Each village usually has a community band responsible for all the musical performances throughout the festa and other village functions. Band clubs occupy a unique position in village life in Malta. The band club also operates its own full-service bar and restaurants that are open to anyone. Indeed, the online reviews on the band halls are generally good as they offer authentic and affordable Maltese dishes. Zurrieq is unique in its two rival band clubs: Saint Catherine Band Club and the Carmelite Society Queen Victoria Band Club. This being the Feast of Saint Catherin, the Saint Catherine Band Club would be the star in a normal year.

The rooftop of the band hall was packed with mostly youngsters enjoying good company and plenty of alcohol. Even though I stood out like a sore thumb among the Maltese, I found the atmosphere incredibly congenial. Our new friend, Ġuż, showed us the best spot; I must admit the view was spectacular. It overlooked the church and the entire town. All the flag poles are adorned with colorful string lights. By my own count, about sixty-five flag poles were just in Żurrieq alone. Although Ġuż did not speak the best English, we had some good conversations, and I got his opinion on Malta, the United States, politics, and life in Żurrieq.

Shortly after getting on the terrace, the carillon began to toll, lasting for a solid half an hour. Ġuż explained that one of his sons was the bell ringer. He also explained just how passionate the Maltese are about their firework. Unlike in the United States, many villages in Malta have a not-for-profit firework workshop for their summer festa. The firework workshops are all staffed by local volunteers and are typically not funded by governments. Instead, they raise money through donations or community barbeques. His brother-in-law worked at the factory, and tonight's show costs upward of more than twenty-eight thousand Euros.

At 9 am, the “final” firework display began. To our disappointment, the intervals between each firework were still a minute apart. And because of the sunk cost fallacy, we decided to stick it out for another hour. Despite Ġuż’s assurance that the big finale was about to happen any moment now, we finally decided it was time to head back to Valletta. Brian has been stressed out all evening about this drive because of his unfamiliarity with driving a manual car with his left hand. We thanked Ġuż for his hospitality and the lovely conversations. Of course, the moment we exited the band hall, the final run of fireworks commenced. We could hear the nonstop explosion as we walked toward our car. The sky was brightly illuminated, and it seemed like almost every motorist on the road pulled over to admire the spectacles in the sky.

Even though we did not fully enjoy the Maltese festa to the fullest because of the pandemic, I still find the experience deeply satisfying. Compared to La Festa Italiana back home, the Feast of Saint Catherine in Żurrieq is rooted in local culture and tradition. There was no cynicism; I felt a deep sense of community and kinship. Best of all, there was no other tourist besides the two of us. Given Malta’s popularity with foreign visitors nowadays, experiences like this were particularly precious.

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The Feast of St. Catherine of Zurrieq

The Feast of Saint Catherine

Fireworks & Band Club

Malta & Switzerland Itinerary - Summer 2021

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