Sunday, December 9, 2018

Religion and Constancy

The feast day of Immaculate Conception was yesterday, it also happens to be by birthday which I was named Mario (for Maria.) There is a lot of rituals around this feast day. It is a popular feast because it is the only one in winter. Most feasts take place in summer when they can predict balmy dry evenings. At the height of the feast, at 6pm, the statue of the icon is carried on the shoulders of men out of the alcove in the church and they take a tour of the city. The statue although sculptured from a carob tree, was in 1905 encased in 30 kilograms of silver and other precious metals and gems. Originally sculptured in 1680 by Suor Maria de Domenicis a Carmelite nun (buried int he chapel  of Santa Katerina in San Lawrenz church in the neighboring city of Birgu.)


The hierarchy of the church are there in their fineries, together with the sceptre bearer. The sceptre (known more commonly as a Mace and more accurately as a Stave) defines the authority of the church. It usually rests high on a cabinet in the sacristy where the priests and the altar boys prepare for mass. I love the sacristy. I used to help with early morning mass before heading out to school. I do not remember much, but I loved my time helping with mass. I even entertained becoming a priest, but that is for another time and a much sillier story.



Together with fireworks, a band and a singing couple (a tenor and soprano singing Ave Maria) all to herald the emergence of the statue. With great pomp and circumstances the statue slowly makes it way around the city. Four hours later it re-enters the church and is cocooned again into its resting alcove on the right hand side of the church for another year. Somehow this ritual has been going on for centuries. An annual feast to honor the Immaculate Conception, the patron of the church, was recorded as early as the seventeenth century. 


For the locals, this is a time to visit relatives and have a drink or two. When I was younger this was an excuse to drink beer and buy hotdogs from the many kiosks that line the streets of the city. For me yesterday, the highlight was doing laundry on the roof with the view of the Grand Harbor. This never gets old.


No comments:

Post a Comment