Despite adorning his house’s façade with decorations to mark the feast of St Helena, enthusiast Marco Vella is adamant that celebrations should focus on honouring a village’s patron saints.

“It’s not all about decorations. As much as I appreciate beautiful decorations, street marches and all that, I think it’s important that we don’t forget what we are really celebrating,” Mr Vella told this newspaper.

For the second year running, the 47-year-old, who has lived in Birkirkara all his life, has spent the last six months working on decorations to mark the feast of St Helena, which is being celebrated this weekend. Mr Vella put in at least an hour every day, working on every minute detail himself.

“I created all the decorations from scratch this year, from the sewing of the valance to the painting of the portrait of St Helena,” Mr Vella said.

I think it’s important that we don’t forget what we are really celebrating

He added that painting the patron saint was his favourite aspect of the whole design.

“I’m not an artist but I looked at pictures on the internet and flipped through different books to get some ideas which I then adapted to fit my design,” Mr Vella said.

He said he has already been approached by other enthusiasts who want him to create similar decorations, but insisted that while he was honoured by the requests, he would not be working for others just yet.

“At the moment that’s not something that I plan on doing. But maybe in the future, it could be something I take up. At the end of the day, that’s what I love most about the feast: it brings out a sense of community. If through my decorations I can achieve that, then why not?”

As to whether he will recycle the decorations for next year, Mr Vella said that although he would keep some, he was also planning to add some more elements to his design.