The 134 parish feasts in Malta and Gozo do not fall on 134 different days. They fall on 55.
Most weekends in summer carry more than one, and nine dates carry five feasts or more.
The nine busiest dates
15 August and 26 July lead with eight feasts each.
Then 23 August and 30 August with seven. 5 July and 12 July have six.
7 June, 19 July and 2 August have five.
On those days you can drive twenty minutes and find another village doing the same thing.
In the other direction, 31 of the 55 dates carry only one feast.
How the year splits
August alone holds 32 of the 134. July holds 26 and June holds 17.
May has 16 and September 15, which makes those the two best months if you want a feast without the peak heat.
November holds one. January and April hold two each.
Roughly three quarters of the calendar falls between May and September.
What that means if you are planning
If you want to see a feast, aim for one of the busy dates. You will have a choice, and if one village is too crowded another is close by.
If you want to avoid them, avoid those same dates.
The roads around each village close and parking disappears by early evening. Park outside and walk in.
15 August is the extreme case, because it is also a public holiday.
It is a week, not a day
The date on the calendar is the feast day itself, usually a Sunday.
The marches, the band programmes and the smaller fireworks run through the four or five days before it.
The big fireworks display is normally the eve, not the day. Arriving on the date itself can mean you missed the loudest part.
Gozo runs its own calendar
Gozo’s feasts sit on the same dates as Malta’s and compete for the same weekends.
The ferry is busy on those evenings in both directions, and the last crossings fill up.
Where to check the dates
Every feast has its own page with the date, the village and how to get there.
The feast calendar lists all 134 and can be searched by village or by month.
Dates shift by a week or two between years, because most feasts move to the nearest Sunday. Check the current year rather than last year’s list.
