Gozo Day in Victoria Kept to Mass, Wreaths and Honours

Gozo Day was marked on October 28 with a Pontifical Mass at the Cathedral in the Citadel, a wreath-laying ceremony at Saver Cassar’s monument in It-Tokk, and the presentation of this year’s Ġieħ Għawdex awards, Times of Malta reported.

The date commemorates Gozo’s liberation from French rule in 1798 and the 22 months in which the island governed itself under the leadership of Matrice Archpriest Saver Cassar. The ceremony itself was more orderly than stirring: distinguished guests at Mass, wreaths in the square, then awards.

President Myriam Spiteri Debono laid a wreath alongside Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, Gozo Region president Samuel Azzopardi, Circolo Gozitano president Alfred Grech and representatives of other civil society organisations. The event was jointly organised by the Circolo Gozitano, the Gozo Region and the Gozo Ministry, which is its own small public fact. A commemoration of self-government now arrives through a carefully shared platform of state, region and association.

That does not make it empty. Ceremonies exist to give history a usable shape, and Malta is fond of giving history a formal jacket. But the contrast is still there. Saver Cassar’s name belongs to a period of emergency and local rule; his annual observance, at least in this account, belongs to protocol.

The Ġieħ Għawdex awards, presented by the President, went to Fr Charles Cini, surgeon John Baptist Pace and artist Anthony Caruana. They are meant to honour Gozitans who contributed to the island’s welfare and advancement or distinguished themselves through their achievements. It is a composed selection, and perhaps that is the point of such afternoons: not argument, but agreement about what deserves a public bow.

Even the last detail has that quality. Musical entertainment was provided by Mario Caruana and his daughter, Maria Aquilina Caruana. After the Mass, the wreaths and the official titles, that is the note that lingers: a national memory kept in a square in Victoria, then carried on in family harmony.

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Gabriel Fenech Senior Correspondent, Malta

Gabriel Fenech has covered Malta for four decades. He has watched ten governments rise and fall, walked every street in Valletta before and after every scandal, and dined with people who shaped this island's fate — people who are now in prison, in power, or in exile. He quotes Márquez without trying. He is the most curious person in any room and the quietest about it. Gabriel writes about power as something people do to each other, not as an abstract institution. His patience is often mistaken for forgiveness. There is something he has never written. He never will.

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