On the Saturday before Easter, the streets of Victoria in Gozo, will once again become the setting for the Pageant of the Passion of Christ – L-Imsallab fi Triqatna (The crucified in our streets).

This year will be the 24th edition of the Passion Pageant, an experience to behold that grows larger every year, and which many, many people follow.

This street theatre performance, organised by the Ghaqda Dilettanti Gimgha l-Kbira – Ghawdex, depicts “the Last Days of Jesus Christ as a human being in the world.”

The audience will witness these last hours etched in human history and become part of the performance along the way as this pageant is enacted through the winding streets of Victoria.

The evening opens at St Augustine’s Square, from where the theatrical production starts at 7.30pm, on Saturday, the 23rd of March.

Thirteen different episodes of the last days of Christ will be acted out in various stations, culminating in the Sanhedrin process and trial before Pilate, which takes place in Republic Street, followed by the Crucifixion up near the Citadel. More than 200 actors take part in the pageant.

The first passion play dates back to 1999. In that year it was performed at the Don Bosco Theatre in Victoria, Gozo.

Then in the year 2000, the Passion play was performed with a difference. Ghaqda Dilettanti Gimgha l-Kbira – Ghawdex said that the venue was neither a theatre nor a church but just the streets forming the core of the oldest locality in Gozo, namely the borgo of Victoria, the island’s capital.

This performance was called L-Imsallab fi Triqatna (The crucified in our streets) and now continues each year.

Ghaqda Dilettanti Gimgha l-Kbira – Ghawdex, was founded in June 1997 by a group of Gozitan enthusiasts, who were fond of the easter traditions in the Maltese islands. Its purpose was to promote Lent, Holy Week and the Easter traditions in Malta and Gozo.

File photo Ghaqda Dilettanti Gimgha l-Kbira – Ghawdex

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