Holy Week and Easter in Malta
Holy Week and Easter are celebrated throughout the Maltese Islands by a number of religious processions, pageants and activities.
Good Friday and Easter are celebrated in Malta in a liturgical and ceremonially prominent manner. On Palm Sunday, one may assist to the liturgical rites that usher in Holy Week. On Thursday evening and Friday morning, churches have their paintings draped over in purple or black velvet. It is a tradition for the Maltese to visit and pray in seven different churches on Thursday evening and Good Friday in the morning.
On Good Friday, in the afternoon, around 17 different towns and villages commemorate the Passion of the Christ by a very solemn procession of statues. Each of these statues represents a particular episode in the Passion of the Christ and is carried by pallbearers. Between one statue and another (some ten in all) participants are dressed as biblical characters who take part in the procession. Many processions include men in penitence bearing a cross and sometimes dragging chains as well tied to their bare feet as penitence.
The Statue of the Risen Christ signifies the last act of the Passion of the Christ - Christ triumphant over death. This time all will rejoice to the commemoration that ‘Christ is Risen from the Dead’, and the Statute is carried in a Procession on Easter Sunday. It is a tradition for children to carry their Easter pastry (known as ‘figolla’ in Maltese) to be blessed on Easter Sunday.
During this time of year, a number of exhibitions related to the Passion of the Christ are also organised throughout the Maltese Islands.