Good Friday petards raise eyebrows

Petards were fired in Mosta during the Good Friday procession as the statue representing the crucifixion was being carried out of the church.

The noise jarred with the solemnity with which many view the occasion, with those hearing it believing it was some sort of salute.

But there may be a different explanation.

Every April 9, the people of Mosta mark the anniversary of the enemy bomb that crashed through the church dome - but failed to explode.

Pietru Pawl Brincat, a choir singer at the church, said it might well be that Friday's petards were in connection with that anniversary, but he could not be sure.

He too remarked that petard firing on a Good Friday was "strange".

An elderly lady from Mosta agreed that it was not normal to let off petards on Good Friday and another Mosta resident said the noise of the petards was not at all complementary to the procession.

When contacted, Mario Farrugia, president of the August 15 Pyrotechnics Society, said the society was not involved in the petard firing.