My Godfather – known in Maltese as parrinu – was my late uncle Edwin Bowman married to my mother’s sister Annie, who was an ultra-religious Roman Catholic and whose life centred on the Church and its religious activities.
I pray and trust that as he lies in Eternal Peace he overlooks my transition as a religious boy under his leadership and guidance and my development into an Agnostic without a part in any religious activity whatsoever.
However, my Maltese childhood was my childhood and memories remain highly active of those days of yore. Sadly for him, his guidance of me remained to the day of his death and throughout my childhood days and later he kindly kept me informed and stocked with information and religious books – some of which I still have.
This period was a highly particular one culminating in Easter Sunday and a battery of functions beginning with the day of Our Lady of Sorrows on the Friday before the start of Holy Week. This entailed highly public street processions around the streets of the Parish Church, reflecting on the sorrows to come in the following week.
These were times when a young boy – and the general public – had nothing but their work, their education, the occasional highly-censored cinema visit, football and a few other sports and before the onset introduction of television.
There were no computers, tablets play-stations, mobiles or calculators of any kind and news was only available through word-of-mouth, radio or newspapers (for those who could read!). Dining out was virtually unknown, music parties of any kind totally unheard of and only the occasional family wedding to attend as a form of entertainment.
The start of Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday when Holy Mass attendants are presented with a dried olive twig and leaves which many pin over their front door to signify peace when entering the home.
During that week, the procedures and behaviours were strict and solemn and any deviation was strictly and severely admonished.
Children were not allowed to play outside in the streets (little traffic then!), shout, scream or make any noise.
Most houses had a black band of mourning cloth adorning their half-opened front door and windows were kept shuttered. Most men did not wear a tie or otherwise wore a black tie. Cigarette or cigar smoking in the street was greatly frowned upon and any breach was generally pointed out by others.
Women in employment were generally unknown and unless they were washer women or owned a shop remained indoors and refrained from appearing in windows.
Maundy Thursday commenced the start of three days of immense solemnity with a lengthy recitation of prayers in the afternoon and evening in all churches. All church ornaments and statues were draped and covered in purple cloth and the use of Communion hosts was refrained.
In late evening, the traditional practice of visiting seven churches/chapels in the vicinity began, entailing praying at framed depictions on walls of Calvary and the Crucifixion of Christ and carried over to Friday.
Good Friday was a day of almost total silence. Bars did not play juke box music and in prostitution areas street walkers refrained from walking the streets. Fasting and abstinence prevailed and of course consumption of meat or meat products totally banned.
The looks on all faces were sombre and solemn and this continued over Holy Saturday, Christ having been crucified, mourned over by his mother Holy Mary.
Easter Sunday morning showed a dramatic change. From midnight onward, noise abounded, music played, parties held and in the morning in many parishes, accompanied by band music, a statue of the risen Christ was carried shoulder high as the carriers ran through the streets to embody joy and celebration.
All these thoughts of my boyhood rumble through my brain at this time of the year and remind me of the sincere solemnity of my dear Uncle Edwin Bowman, may he be residing in Eternal Peace.
What a great difference today! Very, very little of the solemnity, almost most of these traditions ignored and life goes on with noise and passion and little thought of all the processes that make up this event.
That is 2025 but my recollections are in 1952 and 1953!
ALBERT FENECH
