Valletta - A Cultural Experience

As part of Jane’s last day in Malta, we spent the morning exploring St. John’s Co-cathedral in Valletta and briefly around the city. St. John’s Co-cathedral is dedicated to St. John the Baptist and was originally commissioned in 1572. It has gone through a number of redecorations and restorations (particularly after bombing attacks in WWII) but there is certainly a lot of history to soak up among the highly ornate walls.

As part of the admission, we were given audio guides that explained a lot of the history and significance of different parts of the church, which definitely helped in appreciating the smaller details. There was also a museum part with old church robes, choir books, tapestries and several famous paintings, including 'Salome with the Head of John the Baptist' by Caravaggio. I found it particularly interesting to see the old choir books with a very different method of depicting the musical notes and rhythms than I am used to seeing. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in that area though. Below is a view of the highly decorated front of the church.

Afterward, we took some time to wander around Valletta briefly. It's a very interesting city and I love the look of all the narrow streets and old buildings.

Another view of Valletta below. The gates open up to the harbor and a spectacular view across the water.

As we were leaving the city to catch a bus to our next destination, we found the entrance somewhat blocked by a group demonstrating for peace in Libya. It was a fairly small group and their demonstrations were not wild or dangerous, but there were Maltese police there just in case to watch over the event. It was interesting to witness a current event play out firsthand as opposed to just reading it all in the news. A link to an article about it: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110224/local/anti-gaddafi-demonstration-set-for-saturday-in-valletta

Taste of Maltese Culture

We had our first set of cistern explorations at Gomerino Palace on Tuesday. While waiting to get into the area though, we got a chance to walk down the road and explore a little. In addition to the beautiful landscape and lots of old rock walls and structures, we met an elderly Maltese man who invited us into his garden to show us the statue of St. Paul we had seen from outside earlier.

Beautiful Maltese countryside. There were walls like this all over

Lots of beautiful flowers in bloom and no shortage of interesting buildings.

Shrine/statue of St. Paul in the Maltese persons garden. He saw some of us looking over the low, stone fence and he invited us into his garden to get a better look. Most of the group went to Gomerino to go look at the cisterns as we had just got access to the site, but Brig and I stayed behind briefly to see what the guy had to share.

Side of the shrine. There is a small door (can be seen here somewhat) which leads inside to a small circular room

Inside there were several shelves of religious items set up. It was very interesting to see and brought to mind the statistics we had learned about the large religious presence in Malta.

Talking to the Maltese man. He was very nice but spoke next to no Engligh (only Maltese). It made communication a little hard but with some hand gestures and a charades-like guessing of meanings, we were able to understand the general idea. It was great to meet some of the locals already and it was encouraging to be treated so nicely by someone who was a complete stranger not long before.

Malta's Sense of Self

It is quite remarkable to see how large of an influence and impact religion has on the tiny island of Malta, especially in more recent history. A 90% Christian population is not a statistic to be overlooked, and is one that falls in the top 20 countries that have high Christian percentages. As such an overwhelmingly large percentage of the people are Christian, it has become a defining factor of being Maltan since the times of St. Paul. The (relatively) recent sense of independence that Malta has experienced has produced a constitution that allows for “freedom” of religion, but at the same time declares Christianity (Roman Catholicism) as a state religion. For me at least, these seem nearly contradictory. Having a state religion established means that the government, in a way, expects the Maltese to be Christian. This leads to political decisions being aimed towards what may be religiously “correct” (i.e. ones that may promote religious ideals rather than ones that may progress the country as a whole: realize these two are not always correlated). I realize that this is simply the norm in Malta, and is likely generally regarded as a perfectly acceptable and reasonable method of making decisions. It is simply difficult for me, a member of another country which is in many respects different from this religious extreme, to understand how it has become the social norm.

In a bit of irony, the other largest defining aspect of being Maltese, based on a few of the readings, is the Maltese language itself. An extremely small number of people speak it in the world, making it unique and its speakers identifiable. The irony comes from its origins: the Arab invasion in 870 CE. This left an Islamic influence on the Maltese culture during that time which has propagated and can be seen in various aspects even today including the naming of some towns and villages. The fact that these influences are Arab in nature, conflicts with the extreme part of the culture that is now Christian. If being Maltese means pulling from conflicting ideals, it is interesting that it persists (a bit of what Dr. Gambin spoke about) throughout the culture.

Furthermore, this strong sense of belonging and the specific identifiers that the Maltese use in present day are quite different to Malta historically. Malta, being a pit-stop along trade routes and a country that has simply been ruled by the current world power (which has switched many times), has had a difficult time establishing traits that set it apart from other areas of Europe. It has simply been mainly an extension of other cultures. But since gaining its independence, it has developed a sense of self. It uses the traits discussed above, and has very recently (2004) joined the EU as its own nation. These steps of independence mark important milestones in Malta’s development. To quote Dr. Gambin again, Malta is in a state of adolescence as a country, and is still “finding itself,” which I find extremely interesting.

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http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2009/127324.htm

http://www.guidetomalta.net/malta-culture/maltese-culture-religion/

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080726/opinion/true-maltese-identity

http://www.maltabulb.com/maltese_culture.html