Pillar 03 · Festa & Traditions
The Feast of St Catherine: Żejtun’s Festa
The festa is not a schedule. It is a shape the week takes, and the shape only makes sense if you know what each day is for. This page is the orientation: what the festa is, when it falls, what to expect, and how to be present at it without getting in the way of the people whose week it actually is.
What is the Żejtun festa?
Żejtun’s main parish festa honours St Catherine of Alexandria, the titular of the parish church. Like most Maltese festas, it is both a religious observance — novenas, mass, the procession of the titular statue — and a civic one: band marches, decorated streets, fireworks, food, and the cheerful, complicated rivalry between the town’s two band clubs. The festa is the most local week of the year. It is also the one week most worth travelling for, if you can.
When is the festa?
St Catherine’s feast day in the Roman calendar is 25 November, but in Maltese parishes the festa is traditionally celebrated in summer, when the weather suits the outdoor liturgies and the town can fully open up. Żejtun’s festa falls on the third Sunday of June each year, with the run-up beginning the previous Sunday. [LOCAL FACT — Mattew to confirm exact dates each year and update this paragraph.]
If you only have one day to come for the festa, make it the Sunday of the procession. If you can come for two, add the Friday — the Friday-evening band march is the most local and arguably the most atmospheric event of the week.
The week, day by day
What follows is the standard pattern. Specific times shift each year — see the parish’s published programme for current details. Our annually-updated day-by-day breakdown tracks the schedule.
Sunday before festa. The decorations go up. By Monday morning the parish square will be transformed — red damask along the church facade, electric arches over the principal streets, statues of the apostles brought out and placed on their plinths along the procession route.
Monday to Thursday. The novenas in the parish church each evening, building up to the feast day. Each evening also brings smaller band marches, fireworks, and the slow accumulation of festa atmosphere. This is when the parish square fills up gently in the evenings, families bringing folding chairs, the band club bars staying open later each night.
Friday. The big band march of the week. Both band clubs play; one leads, the other follows, and the energy in the streets is unlike anything else in the Maltese calendar. This is the night locals tell visitors to come for if they want to understand what the festa actually is.
Saturday. The vigil. Solemn evening mass. A more contemplative day, after the noise of Friday. Late-night fireworks if the weather permits.
Sunday — the feast day itself. Solemn pontifical mass in the morning. The procession of the titular statue of St Catherine in the late afternoon and evening, accompanied by both band clubs and the full parish. Fireworks at intervals through the procession. The statue returns to the church late, and the festa formally closes.
The band clubs
Żejtun has two band clubs — Beland (Soċjetà Mużikali Beland) and Żejtun (Soċjetà Filarmonika Żejtun) — and the gentle rivalry between them is the spine of the festa week. Both predate Maltese independence, both have their own band club premises, both play the festa with full uniforms and brass. They alternate the role of the senior band on the feast day on a fixed rotation. More on Beland vs Żejtun.
The Good Friday pageant
The Good Friday pageant is the other great parish ritual, and one of the most photographed in Malta. Statues representing scenes of the Passion are processed slowly through the town in the early evening, accompanied by costumed figures and a silent crowd. The Żejtun pageant is large — substantially larger than the towns immediately around it — and visitors who time their visit for Easter often find this the most affecting religious event of their week. Full guide to the pageant.
Other feasts through the year
The St Catherine festa is the parish’s primary feast, but the calendar is full of smaller observances: the procession to St Gregory’s the first Wednesday after Easter; the chapel feasts in the surrounding agricultural land; Ascension; Corpus Christi; the November feast of St Catherine herself, observed quietly in the parish church on her actual calendar day. Year-round religious calendar.
Festa etiquette for visitors
The festa is a working religious observance for the people who live here, even if it is also great fun. A few notes:
Don’t stand in front of the procession to take a photograph; step aside, let it pass, and shoot from the side. Don’t drink alcohol noisily during the procession itself — the band club bars before and after are appropriate; the procession route during the procession is not. Don’t crowd the door of the church when the statue is coming out; that moment is for the parishioners. Dress modestly inside the church. Cash is welcome at the band clubs and at the food stalls. Full visitor etiquette guide.