The festa season has kicked off in Malta, bringing with it the usual complaints about fireworks and bells ringing at the crack of dawn.

Every year, parishioners and new residents across several villages clash over whether bell-ringing should continue for tradition’s sake. Just last month the Żebbuġ archpriest had to intervene in a squabble on social media over bell-ringing on the feast day, while earlier this year Qormi parishioners started a petition to ensure the church clock bells are not silenced.

Mellieħa sacristan Christopher Bartolo during a bell-ringing demonstration.

Attempts to stop bell-ringing are not new, with history books showing that even the British failed to silence them when they ruled the island.

And soon, people will also be able to listen to bell sounds, from every church on the island, by logging onto a website being developed by the National Archives of Malta to be launched later this year.

Aptly called Memorja, the website will be an oral, sound and visual archive, and a main repository of the Maltese national and public memory. 

It will host hundreds of recollections dating back to the 1920s, with footage of interviewees talking about various subjects – from shipbuilding to migration and World War II events to herbal medicine.

A team of archivists has been working on the project for nearly five years, interviewing people and documenting photos, footage and artefacts linked to the interviews.

Project administrator James Baldacchino told Times of Malta the team is racing against time to document people’s recollections before they die.

“We interviewed people who sadly passed away before we could launch the website. Most people are in their 90s, and we even interviewed a 100-year-old man.

Memorja team member Irene Sestili conducting an interview with Giovanni Fragapane in Lampedusa in September 2017.

“We’d meet them several times to ‘dip’ into their memory and record anecdotes and first-hand accounts for posterity. Often they illustrate their experiences with photos and journals that younger generations might discard if they do not know the background story.”

People have also contacted the archives to contribute to the project.

Team racing against time to document people’s recollections

One of them was Rayden Mizzi from Żabbar, who in 2008 started recording every bell in Malta. His collection, which has been donated to Memorja, has over 1,000 recordings of bells chiming in various feasts, seasons and other events throughout the year.

Memorja interviewee Salvatore Davì on his fishing boat in Malta in the 1970s.

The recordings will be uploaded on the website, accompanied by interviews that the archivists held with bell-ringers and sacristans who provide an overview of this often-neglected language.

Bell-ringing is deeply rooted in Maltese history.

Social and economic history professor John Chircop explained that bell-ringing is an ancient practice found in the southern Mediterranean, both in Catholic and Orthodox Greek cultures. It is spread in many parts of southern Europe, including Italy, Spain and Greece.

Chircop is collaborating with Memorja as an academic expert on public memory.

Historically, it was a means of telling time and calling people to mass, while it also had superstitious connotations linked to driving away bad or evil spirits. However, bell-ringing was also an important mode of communication within towns and between villages.

Additionally, it was also used to assemble people for a particular religious, political and cultural events. Royal commemorations and birthdays were celebrated with bell-ringing as much as local village rituals, he explained.

Did anyone ever dare stop the bells ringing?

Lampedusa harbour (date n/a)

“British residents during colonial rule in Malta did try to restrict or control church bell-ringing – but this was many times resisted by villagers.

“They were bothered by the unregulated ‘noise’ which seemed to never stop, leaving them tired and apprehensive of what was going on. Most of them saw in this daily practice an expression of a supposedly ‘uncivilised’, unregulated behaviour of the ‘natives’.

“Local bell-ringing left an incisive impact on British residents in Malta and Gozo – most of whom narrated passing through such experiences – and negatively commenting on this tradition,” Chircop said.

Those interested in this project can register online on www.memorja.com ahead of the launch of the website.

Mellieħa parishioners during the transportation of the biggest bell in 1925.

Maltese migrants in Lampedusa

Lampedusa and Malta often feature in the same news headline when migrants crossing from North Africa to Europe are rescued and taken in by either island.

But the link between the two dates back at least a couple of centuries.

The Italian island hosted a Maltese colony at the beginning of the 1800s when Maltese farmers settled there with their families and got involved in agricultural and pastoral activities.

The number of Maltese settlers started decreasing along the years, until in 1843 almost all of the Maltese were expelled when Lampedusa was colonised by the Bourbons.

Today, two families with Maltese surnames survive on Lampedusa: the de Battista and Caruana families. Irene Sestili, from the National Archives, managed to interview one of the ancestors of the de Battista family.

But migration between the two islands did not stop there. Several Lampedusan fishermen and sailors travelled to Malta between 1950 and the 1980s, to sell fish here, repair ships or shelter from bad weather.

According to Sestili’s interviews, Lampedusans perceived Malta as a rich island from where they purchased coffee, sugar, chocolate, tobacco, cigarettes and soap. They also had several tales to tell about Malta, including anecdotes at the Marsaxlokk and Valletta fishmarkets… and the notorious Strait Street.

And just like the Maltese had settled in Lampedusa, some stayed on in Malta, including one man who was saved by Marsaxlokk fishermen.