Holy Week is the most serious week in the Maltese calendar. This year Good Friday fell on 3 April and Easter Sunday on 5 April. Almost every town takes part, and several processions carry statues that have gone through the same streets for hundreds of years.
Palm Sunday starts the week
Palm and olive branches are blessed and the week begins. It is the quietest of the days people travel for.
Seven churches in one evening
On Maundy Thursday people do Is-Seba’ Visti (the seven visits), walking between seven churches in one evening. Churches stay open late for it and families go round in groups.
Nobody needs a ticket or a plan. You walk into a town centre after dark and follow what is happening. It is one of the better evenings of the year to be out.
Good Friday is the main day
Life-size statues showing the Passion are carried through the streets on shoulders, with people in costume and bands playing funeral marches. The processions are solemn, not festive, and the atmosphere across the islands is subdued.
Good Friday is a public holiday and many restaurants close. To see the statues up close, stand where the street narrows.
Easter Sunday turns it around
Statues of the Risen Christ are run through the streets at speed by teams who have been carrying weight all week. In some towns they run them uphill. The mood is the opposite of Friday.
Children are given figolli (almond-filled Easter cakes) cut into shapes, and the day ends over a long family lunch. There is more on what gets eaten and when.
If you are here that week
Book food in advance for Good Friday rather than on the day. Buses run a Sunday timetable on the holiday. The dates move every year because Easter does, so check before you book flights.
