Ritual, play and identity : changing patterns of celebration in Maltese villages

Abstract

Throughout much of Mediterranean Europe, community celebrations seem to be changing. Some are declining, even disappearing. Many authors foretold the increasing secularization industrialization, rationalization of production, mobility, mass media, alternative sources of amusement and the liturgical reforms of Vatican II would take their toll of European public rituals. What they did not foresee was that many public celebrations, especially during the past two decades, have not only disappeared, but have been holding their own and expanding. In Spain, ltaly, in Malta there has been a general increase in fiestas and Holy Week celebrations (cf. Bofill 1985:60; Kroese 1989: Maddox l986:782, fn. 54; Bravo 1984:15: Gallini 1979:104; Boissevain 1984, 1988a). In some places festivities have been reintroduced, sometimes after decades of non-observance. Examples are the Good Friday proccession in Lanciano (Abruzzo), carnival in southern France (Fabre and Chamberoque, 1977) and in Campania (Rossi and De Simone 1977) and related events like Seqa-la-recchia in Siena and Grosseto (Clemente 1981). Other celebrations have been invented and occasionally presented to both inhabitants and visitors as traditional: the Good Friday procession in Belvedere Langue (Bravo 1984) and the festival of the sausage in Morlupo (Korovkin 1979). [excerpt]