I don’t know what you were doing on Saturday night, but I was at the races…the horse races…the horse races running down the middle of the main street of Victoria, Gozo! But more on that in a moment.
I had another fantastic week in Malta. The crazy hot weather isn’t letting up, but it is what it is. I headed over to the main island on Thursday to meet one of the academics from the University of Malta, Daniela. The University has about 12,000 students and a well-staffed Department of Marketing. It was great to meet Daniela and make plans to jointly publish several journal articles with the UM team over the next 24 months…that includes you, Dr Bryant!
Now back to the races. My ‘better on two feet’ policy proved to be a winner. Having just completed a 12km walk, I found myself at a supermarket right in the centre of town. But while I entered the supermarket through the back entrance, I then decided to leave through the front entrance, which opens onto the main street in Victoria. As soon as I walked up the stairs, I could see barricades and large concrete blocks, and no traffic of course. I asked my trusty friend, ChatGPT, what was going on, having told it my location and the fact that the road was closed. ‘What event is on, Chat?’. ‘Simon, today, Saturday 8 August, Victoria is holding the Tiġrija ta’ Santa Marija, part of the build-up to the Santa Marija festa’. Apparently, the University of Malta archives contain an original Gozo government record detailing expenditure for the Santa Marija race held on 15 August 1611, so the event is at least 415 years old. But they think it is probably older than that, with Gozo folklore suggesting the races date to the medieval period, when they helped keep the mounted members of the Dejma – Gozo’s local militia – trained and ready. Even the young kids were having a rip (photo below) and not mucking around! It was a lively event, but I thought the fireworks probably didn’t need to happen. The sun was still blazing when they were going skyward, so we might just call them bang-then-smoke-works instead of fireworks 🙂
On Sunday night, it was out to the village of San Lawrenz, for the yearly Feast. And I’m reliably informed to expect super-hot weather in the coming week; why?…because Saint Lawrence was tied on top of an iron grill over a slow fire and roasted to death in 258 in Rome, and he brings hellish weather each year with him to the Gozo Feast in his honour.
The Feast of St Lawrence parade
