Be the first to comment!L-Imsallab fi Triqatna: Passion play taking place in Victoria this Saturday
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The Easter Festival – 2014 edition, organised by the Ghaqda Dilettanti Gimgha l-Kbira – Ghawdex, reaches its climax this coming Saturday, the 5th of April, with L-Imsallab fi Triqatna, a passion play, which takes place around the streets of Victoria, starting from St Augustine Square at 7.00pm.
It will be repeated on the 9th of April in the village of Mqabba, Malta.
The first passion play staged by the Ghaqda Dilettanti Gimgha l-Kbira – Ghawdex, dates back to 1999. In that year the passion play was performed at the Don Bosco Theatre in Victoria, Gozo. In the jubilee year 2000, the passion play was performed with a difference.
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).
This tradition now continues each year. The play starts the Oratory Don Bosco in St Augustine Square and proceeds through the streets of Victoria followed by the large crowds that are drawn each year to see the pageant.
Different episodes of the last days of Christ are acted out in various stations culminating in the Sanhedrin process and trial before Pilate in Republic Street and the Crucifixion just beneath the Citadel bastions. More than 200 actors take part in the pageant.
Other events in the Festival included a Sacred Art Festival; The publication of a limited edition philatelic postcard, this year in memory of Leli Camilleri, an active member of the group, who passed away last November; A talk on Good Friday in Gozo by Anthony Farrugia; and a Festival of Easter Food, on the traditional Gozitan and Maltese foods and drinks associated with Lent, Holy Week and Easter, which was held at Ta’ Pinu.
The 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.
