By Dun Gwann Dimech

Since the year 1601 till 200 years ago the feast of the Annunciation in our Parish was always held on the day 25^th March the Liturgical feast day.

Since the day Balzan became a Parish on the 14^th of August 1655 and since the church became a parish on the 17^th of December 1668, the feast of the Annunciation grew each year.

During the last hundred and ninety seven years there where thirteen Grandmasters, nine Archbishops and the Balzan Parish church had seven Parish priests since 1655

I shall not go into detail about the decorations used for the feast. We know that these where not done all at once, in fact till the present day the new feast decorations are being made. What impressed me the most is one of the bills paid for the feast, among some dating from 1601 to 1780.

Here we see that the Church damask was not yet done and was rented from another church, which was the St Philip Church in Vittoriosa. It wasn’t easy for me to see from where the damask was rented. When I was looking through the bills I found the following notes: “Per fitto di damasco per barche, per pastasi portatura e riportatura” which means “ For the rented damask, boats, helpers who carried it to Balzan and back”. Finally after looking through one bill after the other the church name from where the damask was rented showed up: “ Affito di Tapezzria dalla Chiesa di San Filippo della Senglea” which means ”renting of the damask from St Philip Church in Senglea.

It was a custom that on the Feast the church floor would be covered in bayleaves Klin, carob and thyme. For the feast the Balzanin would get the leaves from Buskett gardens.

From Valletta four pales of tar were bought, which was used along with wood for lighting

For the external lighting they used to rent hundreds of coloured oil lamps, which were brought, from Birkirkara and Lija. Until the church organ was made in 1727, the organ was also rented.

For many years the Maestro di Cappella Melchiore San Martin directed the music.

It was a tradition that the parish priest of Balzan would rent a horse driven carriage and go and invite the Grandmaster and the Archbishop for the feast.

A carriage was also rented for the Preacher and three others for the musicians and singers.

One should also mention the nougat a sweet that is linked to the Maltese feasts. In one of the books found in the church, nougat is mentioned this was in 1746 were the alter boys were each given a piece.

This is a copy of the bill of the feast in the past:

References:

1.   Dimech – Hal Balzan Nur.6         2.   Suppliche 1668 – Kuria Archiv.

3.   Arkiv. Parr – Lib 48                    4.   Arkiv. Parr – Lib 56

5.   Archiv. Parr – Lib Ibid. Cit         6.   Archiv. Parr – Lib 48

7.   Archiv. Parr – Lib 56                  8.   Archiv .Parr – Lib 48

9.   Archiv. Parr – Lib. ibid. cit         10.  Archiv. Parr – Lib. ibid. cit

11.  Archiv. Parr – Lib. ibid. cid        12.  Archiv. Parr – Lib.  56

13.  Archiv. Parr – Lib 56 A