Ic-Cena tas-Sinjur

The Last Supper Exhibition in Nadur
by Anton Mercieca

It has now become a Nadur Passion Week tradition… for both locals and outsiders. They come in hundreds to our town during the last week of Lent to experience the Last Supper Exhibition.

Yes… to experience and not just to see. Because this Last Supper Exhibition is a path into biblical times harmonizing imagination, culture and history. For a few minutes the visitor is taken into another land… way back in the first century in Jerusalem. And one finds oneself ushered into an upper room… with arcades and arches… oriental-like carpets and curtains… moving among life-size figures standing, sitting or reclining around a table full of food and fruits so very faithful to that particular place and era. With flickering lights coming out of trimmed lamps and torches… and soft background music to help one become part and parcel of that mystical moment when Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Love.

It is not easy for the Museum members to change a common classroom into a first century Jewish Cenacle. They start in earnest way back in January and up to mid-March the classroom resembles a big mixed-up jigsaw puzzle. But then, little by little, everything seems to find its place for the creation of yet another Last Supper Exhibition… so much different from last year's presentation.

It has been fourteen years since this exhibition was put up for the first time. But so many changes have been made through the years… from the very amateurish attempt of 1989 with sacks and pokes as curtains to the high standard and professional set-ups of recent years.

The aim of the exhibition is to enhance love and devotion to the Sacrament of Love… the Holy Eucharist. And that is the reason why the members of the Museum invite all visitors to enter the Cenacle with a spirit of faith rather than mere curiosity… to listen attentively to the commentary and to remember the words of Jesus uttered in that unforgettable evening… in that special upper room… in the city of cities for every Jew… "This is the greatest love a man can show… that he should lay down his life for his friends."

Yes HE is our friend… always so near and ready to help us along life's uneasy and difficult paths.