St. Paul's Bay, Valletta, Malta
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tuesday February 10th was a national holiday in Malta celebrating Paul's shipwreck on the island and the subsequent conversion to Christianity. We started the day at
St. Paul's Bay in the northern part of the island and saw the Church of St. Paul's Bonfire where it is believed that Paul landed on the island and, well, lit a fire when he go there. We walked around the bay enjoying the sunshine and relative warmth of the afternoon. It had been colder than any of us had expected and none of us were all too thrilled about this. Anyway, after walking along for a while and playing on some rocks along the edge of the bay and seeing a horse being walked on a leash out into the water (???) we decided to look for the Apostle's fountain. We asked a few passersby if they knew where it was, but most either shook their heads no or pointed in any old direction and said nothing. We continued to wander along and eventually found a fountain, still not sure if it's THE fountain or not, but it was cute so we took pictures anyway. After our stroll through
St. Paul's Bay, with the help of some friendly atp workers and a lovely older couple, we caught a bus back to
Valletta to take part in the celebrations there. Days before the city had already been decorated with banners and garlands and statues and lights in honor of the festa. There was a band practicing it's march through the streets in the evenings. We got to
Valletta around 3pm or so and wandered around a bit gawking at all the people crowding the streets. The bands were playing and there was confetti being thrown from balconies. We managed to squeeze through the crowd and found the church of St. Paul's Shipwreck and went inside. We had visited before, but now it was absolutely packed with people and all the ornate altars covered in silver plating glittered in the lights and reflected the camera flashes and the many many people. It wasn't quite time for the parade to come around yet so we went to a restaurant that was all done up for St. Paul and were surprised to find that we could get dinner for only a few euros. The upstairs of the restaurant was full of paintings, sculptures, and relics related to or created in honor of Paul. After dinner, we heard some fireworks so we tried to follow the sound and followed them to the top of the city, but they were sporadic, so we headed back down toward the church. On our way we found ourselves wading through knee deep shredded paper confetti. There were kids having paper fights and making forts. It was like a Maltese snow day! We decided to join in and had a great time romping through the paper with the kids. I'm still picking the paper out of my shoes and purse. After making some paper angels (we had to do it!) we went back down to the church, got some amazing chocolates, and found a place to stand and wait for the parade to come around. Local men carry the statue of Paul on their shoulders from the church around the entire city of
Valletta and then back into the church until the next year. There were tons of people gathered by the church. The band was there, television cameras, and lots and lots of nougat stands. We met a very nice lady who explained to us the symbolism, meaning, and importance of the day for the Maltese and she told us the best place to stand and what to take pictures of. As the statue neared the church, the bells were ringing, fireworks were going off, and the band was playing, a group of local men had gathered on the steps to the church to hinder the statues return inside the building. They were singing, chanting, and clapping and there was an overall feeling of excitement and merriment. Finally, the police separated the crowd and the pallbearers prepared to run the statue up the steps and back into the church. The crowd cheered as the bearers rushed the statue up the steps and successfully back into the church to wait for next year's celebration. Afterwards we wove our way through the crowd and back out to the buses. Unfortunately, because it was so late (for Malta anyway, 11pm), the buses had stopped running so we had to get a taxi back to the residences. Totally worth it though.
