Saints and festivals
The spiritual links behind many of Malta’s most distinctive festivals and street parties are easy to identify, but it’s all done without a scrap of pretence.
Instead, it’s all fun, food and music at the ‘festas’ that take place throughout Malta in the spring and summer. Those feasts are put on to commemorate the great saints of the Catholic church, although to many modern Maltese people and the holidaymakers who join in the revelry, it’s as much an excuse to eat, drink and be merry.
Each year more than 60 festas take place in spring and summer, so across an island of Malta’s size, it’s safe to say you could stumble upon some by chance. You’ll soon know about it when you have, with the churches decorated with white fairy-lights and the streets full of laughter and colour.
To make sure you’re a part of the island’s biggest festa, head to Sliema in the final week of July for the Feast of the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.