During the summer festive season, now drawing to a close, tens of thousands of people, residents and tourists have basked in the wondrous spectacle that is the Maltese festa. This once simple religious tradition has, over the latter decades of the last century, evolved to become the multi-faceted week-long festivity we all know today.

The Maltese festa is today a mix of religion, culture, art, culinary and pyrotechnic tradition the likes of which you would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else around the globe. However, if you had to ask anyone in the street about what they love most about festas they will probably answer: “il-murtali u ġ-ġigġifogu” (petards and Catherine wheels).

Modern-day fireworks have their roots deep in Maltese history and one can trace their origins back more than four centuries when the Knights of St John used to fire blank charges on various occasions. Such events varied from celebrations of special occasions, to the welcoming of friendly ships into the Grand Harbour and to simply the practice of announcing the time. The celebration of special occasions using cannon and petards eventually took root in the individual communities spread across Malta and Gozo and, eventually, the many firework factories we have today emerged.

There is, however, a very long shadow that is cast by the bright explosions and flames of fireworks: the complete disregard for the cost everyone has to bear for such a tradition. This cost is, unfortunately, paid by everyone who inhabits these islands whether you love, tolerate or hate fireworks.

The Maltese people, as a whole, have a more than holy reverence to fireworks displays and they flock to watch them in their thousands every week. However, what so many people fail to realise is what cost everyone has to pay every time there is a fireworks display. It is mind blowing how something so harmful and downright dangerous is enjoyed by the public.

First and foremost, the numerous firework factory explosions have taken the lives of well over 100 people along the years. Secondly, every single fireworks display is, at best, an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen due to the fact that we hurl burning material and petards in completely dry fields and, on many occasions, right next to the countryside.

It is mind blowing how something so harmful and downright dangerous is enjoyed by the public

There are too many villages that let off petards from and hold the ground fireworks displays in bone-dry valleys where flames can endanger and destroy the already struggling vegetation during the hot summer months. This is what happened in 2010 and in 2018, when a collapsed cave at Maqluba, in Qrendi, highly regarded for its ecological importance, was set alight when a petard landed inside the area destroying the unique ecosystem there.

Dozens of grass fires are caused by fireworks every year and they are usually controlled by the brave men and women of the Civil Protection Department. However, it only takes one grass fire to destroy vital ecosystems. These fires are but one of the many crimes carried out in the name of tradition.

Chemicals released by the fireworks further deteriorate our worsening air quality. Petards generate noise pollution that is detrimental to important wildlife as well as to residents who have to tolerate the loud explosions well after 11pm, not to mention the damage to one’s hearing, caused by the shock waves generated by the blasts. The explosions also cause of great distress to many of our beloved house pets and also children and adults who suffer from various mental conditions.

Notwithstanding all these very real threats and consequences to our well-being, fireworks are still rampant across the nation throughout most of the year and there is no sign of them abating any time soon.

The truth is that, with some effort and respect to the environment as well as each other, fireworks displays can still be part of Maltese tradition without trampling over everyone and everything. Simple measures can be taken to reduce the cost born by society and the environment and such measures do not by any means kill the tradition.

Such measures can include:

A maximum decibel limit for petards, ensuring the explosions do not damage peoples’ hearing.

No explosions after 11pm, something which should already be the case.

Ground fireworks should not be let off adjacent to fields, especially those leading to inaccessible valleys.

Any vegetation immediately surrounding fireworks should be watered before the display to avoid the risk of grass fires as much as possible.

With such measures we can maybe start to reduce the cost we all have to pay so this Maltese tradition can live on because, at the end of the day, tradition is never an excuse to avoid change. Remember that, not so long ago, the Maltese festa was a distinctly religious tradition, something which we seem to have had no trouble changing.

Let us be responsible and take care of our country as it needs our attention now more than ever.

Robert Xuereb Archer is co-founder of Vegan Prism.