Opening the Maltese holy week celebrations
Morbi vel tincidunt neque. Aenean consectetur maximus tristique. Sed nunc sem, maximus ac diam vel, pretium condimentum turpis.
December 2017
On Palm Sunday, the village opens the Maltese holy week celebrations with its Palm Sunday procession. Pjazza Santa Marija and its interlinking streets serve as backdrop to the drama and the pageantry involved in the processional retinue of statues and villagers dressed as biblical personages.
The procession has early origins with the ornate gilded funerary casket encasing a statue of the corpse of Christ dating back to 1760 when it was ordered and shipped from Rome. The rest of the statuary collection marking various pivotal stations of contemplation from the Via Crucis were originally ordered in sequence from Peppi Vella the papier-mâché artist from Valletta. In fact the original set of statues were inspired by the Good Friday processional set custodied at the Santa Marija ta’ Ġesú (Ta’ Ġieżu) in Valletta.
Karlu Darmanin created for this parish the seated Addolarata in 1908 as his final, conculding ouvre of his illustrious career. A sombre dignified figure, the face lost in contemplative grief is almost surely a tribute to his beloved wife from he widowed after a few years of marriage. His wife Anna daughter of Giovanni Ready and Eleonora Byene was born in Ħal Għaxaq.
Karmnu Mallia known as “Il-Lhudi” worked on the figure of the Virgin Mary under the cross and the Veronika. Mallia’s links to creations for the festa street decorations in Ħal Għaxaq is well documented.
The new millenium brought in new innovations with new statues carved in wood by the artist, Chev. Alfred Camilleri Cauchi. The new sculptured statues are slowly replacing the old set.
