United Travel Malta

In our previous blog post, we recommended visiting a Maltese Village Festa during the summer months. We thought that we would publish a blog post that features the Village Festa, and all they have to offer. In Malta the "Festa Season" starts from the end of May and goes on throughout the Summer months until the end of September. There are a few exceptions of feasts that take place earlier or later on in the year, for example the feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck that takes place on the 10th February every year. Every village has at least one patron saint, with some even having two or three, and it is these patron saints that are celebrated during these feasts. A village feast takes place over an extended weekend, and each feast has it's own annual allocated weekend. In the week before the feast, the respective village will decorate the streets with statues raised on wooden columns, as well as with festoons and banners, all dedicated to their patron saints. The p...

Naxxar Parish Church Although it is not easy to determine when Naxxar started to become a village, it is considered to be one of the oldest villages in Malta. Cart ruts that can be found on the outskirts of the village date back to the Bronze Age and are proof at how old Naxxar actually is. Nowadays, Naxxar is more like a town rather than a village as it has grown to around 11sqkm in size and has a population of over 13,000. As a whole, the village, or town, is divided into 8 districts - Naxxar centre, Sghajtar area, San Pawl Tat-Targa, Birguma, Maghtab, Salina, Bahar ic-Caghaq and part of Madliena. According to tradition, the people of Naxxar were amongst the first to help St. Paul when he was shipwrecked in Malta. For this reason, it is thought that the name Naxxar comes from the word "nassar" (Nasra) which means "conversion to Christianity". Other scholars believe that the name comes from the words "nsara" or "nazaroei" which mean ...

Since we are at the start of the cooler, rainy season in Malta I have decided to write a series of blogs that talk about a number of smaller villages that are not usually busy with tourists, and that will give visitors an insight into village life in Malta. To start this series, I have decided that my first blog will be about what locals call the Three Villages. The Three Cities found in the southern part of the Island are quite well known amongst tourists, and a trip to Malta will generally include a visit to the Three Cities; however the Three Villages are not as well known. These villages go by the names of Attard, Balzan and Lija, and although they are now a bit bigger than your typical village, they are still too small and not busy enough to call them towns. These three villages merge into each other, however each one has it's own parish church and village square complete and their own parish church means that they also have their own village feast at some point during th...