Bonfires on eve of John the Baptist's feast

I have great admiration for the good work being done by Din l-Art Helwa but I was really surprised when on June 26 I heard one of their prominent members speaking during the PBS news. I never expected a man of his stature not to know a little history of Malta.

He maintained that the feast of St John the Baptist has nothing to do with the bonfires that take place on the eve for it was the British who introduced them. Many are the local and foreign historical and literary sources that contradict these affirmations.

It is true that originally they were a pagan way of welcoming the summer season. All over Europe, Midsummer's Eve was celebrated in various ways but the bonfire was the most popular. One custom was to set fire to a tar barrel and swing it round a pole. We read that "There is a possible reference to such customs in connection with the celebration of St John the Baptist's day as early as the 7th century. An 11th century writer describes a wheel set alight and brandished in the air. An edict issued in Germany in 1566 expressly forbids the use of fire wheels on St John the Baptist's day, which it lumps with 'other heathen and superstitious practices'." It is common knowledge that the Catholic Church gave many pagan rites a religious meaning.

St Luke's gospel tells us that when Elizabeth gave birth to John, "when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy". Traditionally people used to show their happiness by lighting fires and it's the unwritten belief that that's what Elizabeth's friends did. In fact, St John the Baptist's day commemorates his birth and not his martyrdom which is celebrated on August 29.

Even before the Order of St John arrived in Malta, it was customary to light fires in villages to express the joy at the birth of Christ's precursor. The Order seems to have adopted this custom to celebrate their patron's feast day. The Grand Master himself, accompanied by the Bishop, the Grand Prior and other dignitaries, used to light the first bonfire as a sign for the other towns and villages to do likewise. This tradition continued until well after the last war until eventually it died a natural death due to various circumstances. I am one of many who remember the fun we used to have as children carting old wooden furniture from houses and tree branches from the fields and trying to jump over the fire.

It was the San Gwann council which once again introduced this custom when at its inception in 1994 it started celebrating St John's Day by having a big bonfire on the eve of the feast. This seems to have caught on because since then other councils and even Din l-Art Helwa started having their own bonfire.