Judge Giovanni Bonello’s recent double-page spread on ‘Fireworks in early Malta’ (Times of Malta, June 24) made very interesting reading and it intrigued me enough to add my two pennies’ worth of information about the subject but always relating to my native Qormi where fireworks enthusiasts abound.

In my very early teaching years, c. 60 years ago, one of my Form II pupils wrote a composition in English titled ‘My village feast’ and included the following words: “When the saint arrives at the door, the infernal box goes up”, being his literal translation of “Meta l-qaddis jasal fil-bieb [tal-knisja], titla’ l-kaxxa nfernali”.

Bonello explained that the kaxxa nfernali is nothing more than “an illiterate misreading of cassa infernale” and he is right, of course.

However, at Qormi, we have a different version that goes back to the 1930s.

The late George Azzopardi (il-Bożu) who, by the way, was quite literate, once told me he was present when a few fireworks enthusiasts were trying out a small example of a kaxxa with all its noise, fumes, etc. A local priest, Rev. Vincent Borg (1886-1957), a keen enthusiast himself, remarked it was “come l’inferno”. 

Aerial fireworks at St George’s feast, Qormi. Photo: Stephen Mifsud

The remark caught on and the locals started calling it kaxxa infernali. Actually, there does not seem to be a very short or single-word English description of the kaxxa such as ‘catherine wheel’ for raddiena, and, in fact, Prof. Joseph Aquilina (1911-97) describes the kaxxa, in his dictionary, as “a number of petards fired together at a great height creating a display of colourful fire designs”. One, therefore, has to sympatise with my former pupil, who christened the kaxxa as “the infernal box”.

The above concerns the colourful kaxxa. But there is another type of kaxxa known as the kaxxa Spanjola.

The same late George Azzopardi told me that the local fireworks enthusiasts were at a loss on how to name this kaxxa, which included loud bangs and musketry-like fireworks normally let off during daylight, as opposed to colourful kaxxi that are let off when it’s dark.

Before World War II, Italian (mainly Sicilian) fireworks experts used to be brought over to Malta

When testing a small kaxxa in 1937, Azzopardi likened the musketry to the musket fire in the ongoing Spanish Civil War (1936-9) and this type of kaxxa was soon christened ‘Kaxxa Spanjola’.

Before World War II, Italian (mainly Sicilian) fireworks experts used to be brought over to Malta and engaged to manufacture all the fireworks, ground and aerial, for the village feast.

At Qormi, and probably also at other localities, these experts used to be engaged for a number of months, living in the locality with full board and lodging, and paid to manufacture the fireworks.

The programme of the fireworks display by Ignazio and Giacomo Potenzone let off at Qormi on April 22, 1932, the eve of the feast day.

One such occasion was in 1932 when the brothers Ignazio and Giacomo Potenzone from Messina were engaged to manufacture the fireworks for the feast of St George held on April 23.

A programme, reproduced with this article, of the fireworks let off on the eve of the feast, gives the following details of the display that took place at Piazza Vallone, or rather Wied is-Sewda, at Qormi. At 10.15pm, Ignazio was scheduled to let off 10 colourful petards, all completely different to each other. His display was to be followed by another 10 completely different petards manufactured by Giacomo.

This display was to be followed by seven different ‘catherine wheels’ (irdieden) described as follows: 1. Tiġrija tal-bicycles (bicycle race); 2. Patist isinn is-skieken (Patist honing knives); 3. L-arblu ta’ Mejju (the maypole); 4. Rota tal-mużajk (a mosaic wheel); 5. Rota indiavolata (a devilish wheel); 6. Rota fantastika (a fantastic wheel); 7. Villa fuq in-naturali (a villa in natural surroundings).

What is intriguing about this programme is that the display was to be ended by a “final l-aktar sabiħ u fantastiku li qatt ma deher bħalu” (a most beautiful and fantastic finale the like of which has never been seen).

One of the spectators was the late Ġużè Azzopardi (ta’ Żbari) who I remember was a messenger at the university when I was a student in the 1960s. He attested that the grand finale was a colourful kaxxa nfernali. However, the words “which have never been seen” in the programme implies that the first kaxxa infernali in Malta was let off at Qormi in 1932.

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the help extended by Dr Karmenu Mallia in the compilation of this article.