Mixing Traditions at Epiphany

My first two posts have aimed to give a bit of context to Birgu and its history, but the main aim of this blog is simply for me to document things that I find interesting in the city, and to share those things with others.  These could be places in the city, the everyday practices of its citizens, or more highly organised traditions.  Through the year I will photograph them and write about them, although where possible I will allow them to speak for themselves without too much additional commentary or contextualisation.

Today I am writing about an event that I witnessed last week.  It particularly interested me as it combined traditions derived from the different cultures of those who have lived in the city through the last millennium, a theme that I am sure will recur throughout the year.

The event in question was the procession of the Three Wise Men, marking the Feast of the Epiphany.  Three men, in costume and carrying gifts, were led on horseback into the city and down to the main square.  Here they waited while Christmas carols were sung and speeches were made, before continuing the re-enactment and eventually leaving the city via the waterfront.

In itself, the procession was unsurprising.  It was grounded in the Catholic tradition of re-enactments promoted by both the Knights and the ruling classes that pre-dated them.  Also, it was similar to many other processions that I have seen in Birgu throughout the last year, although as my posts around Easter will show, this celebration of Epiphany was relatively low key.

What made the event interesting for me, however, was the unexpected juxtaposition of different cultural traditions.  The procession of the Wise Men asks us to remember scenes from the Middle East over 2000 years ago, re-imagined in the medieval streets of Birgu, but led by the Pipe Band of the 1^stCospicua Scout Group, providing an unlikely Highland Scottish soundscape for the event.

This pipe band was formed in British Empire days, with the support of a Scottish Highland regiment doing a tour of duty in Malta.  In 1928 it merged with the Cospicua Scouts, another legacy of Empire, to form the first Scout pipe band in the country.  The tradition of pipes and drums in the Cottonera has continued to this day, and all members of the band are active Scouts or Scout leaders. According to its website, the Epiphany celebration is only one of many traditional events at which the band is active throughout the year.

The cultural melting pot represented here is a recurrent feature of Birgu’s calendar, and I will return to the subject again when other processions at Easter and during the August festas are accompanied by the more widespread musical organisations of Malta, the brass bands.