The
Traditional Nadur Carnival
- by Dr Mario Saliba
The
traditional type of Carnival held in Nadur after dusk has fallen has
been an fascinating manifestation attracting hundreds of people both
local and foreigners. Carnival
in Nadur is unique because it is spontaneous and everybody does, within
the limits of the law of course, whatever he or she feels doing.
The main street of the village will be crammed full with hundreds of people who enjoy the carousing which goes on into the early hours of the morning during the three days of Carnival. This year it is going to be from Thursday 19th of February ending on Ash Wednesday, aslso known as Mardi Gras. These five days of debauchery are allowed before the advent of the forty days of ascetic self-denial of the Catholic Lent of olden times.
It is like a spontaneous street theatre without any organisation! It is not one organised by the National Festivities Committee or even the Local Council. Subsequently no rules apply. As soon as night falls a number of masked and hooded creatures appear in the main street in Nadur from the Mnarja Band Club (MBC Theatre) up to Nadur Youngsters’ Football Club. Anyone watching this spectacle for the first time will be intrigued by the dramatic creativity on display. These street performers are local folks who come up with the most original of ideas and one is astonished by their capability and masterly performances!
The
‘maskerati’ as these masked participants are called, parade along
the street wearing only a bed sheet, boiler suits, old clothes, and some
times no clothes at all. Those with American connections represented by
the large number of Nadurin living in the USA put up a show wearing
masks or faces representing the world leaders such as American
presidents or foreign Prime Ministers. (It is interesting to note that
local politicians are not represented at all in Carnival festivities.
Does this reflect our lack of humour in real life?).
Year after year the hits of the show are the deliberately farcical performances which could be something like a crudely-costumed group building a stone wall or the re-enactment of a wedding ceremony including the honeymoon love affair or the hospital set up with a group performing a macabre operation where the patients limbs are sawn out. The best performers are often the caricatures that express the vexations that the traditional townsfolk feel towards contemporary political initiatives or social trends. Some may use the event to ridicule unpopular governance. Their masks conceal their identity from the possibility of retribution or disgrace. Under these masks they feel free and the event became, according to Dr Vicki Ann Cremona, who has been studying Nadur Carnival for a number of years, “a mock revolution”. During an interview which the author had with the University lecturer she is of the opinion that the increasing number of outside spectators were imposing their values on an event that had survived anachronistically only because few people outside Gozo knew or cared about it until the nineties. For several consecutive years Vicki Ann has been following Nadur Carnival and encouraging her students in theatrical studies to study this phenomenon. In any case, her worst fears have not come to pass yet. There may be fewer performances now then ten years ago, and none of the former macabre stuff (such as hens crucified alive, masked participants brandishing sickles, animal intestines and innards or women’s soiled underwear flaunted for gory effect, but performances on display remain true to the original spirit.
Adding
to the hubbub is a popular folkloristic band called ‘Id-Daqqaqa’
consisting of seven instruments giving an unremitting melody heard only
in Carnival period. It attracts the onlookers and invites everybody to
dance to the tune in circles. These local ‘musicians’ stay near the
two main wine bars in December 13th Street namely ‘Il-Mahrag’ and
‘Pupu’s Bar’. In olden days there used to be other bars in other
streets that used to host these Daqqaqa. Such bars included ‘ta’
gummajr’ in Racecourse Street, ‘tal-Kuka’ in St John Street,
‘tal-Gabbu’ in Main Street and ‘tal-Gaba’ in Old Windmill
Street.
The band which is grouped on the pavement or inside these bars consists of the ‘Rabbaba’ – a cat or rabbit skin tightened to a tin container with a reed in the middle played by rubbing a sponge up and down by the reed; a pair of wooden castanets, a small drum with six pairs of circular tin plates fixed round the edge and held in one hand and beaten with the other; the ‘zaqq’ resembling the Scottish bagpipes but simpler like those found in Sicily; the guitar which started being played when the ‘zaqq’ became hard to come by; the triangle played by hitting it with an iron rod and a mouth or hand organ. Before the hand organ was a simple one with buttons on both sides but the most recent one is more like a piano accordion with a small piano on the right side. These traditional instruments survived only in the Nadur Carnival and we are lucky to be able to still enjoy this tribal type of merry music.
The ‘Kukkanja’ was introduced way back in 1721. Carnival Monday and Tuesday greasy poles used to be mounted in the square with live animals and baskets full of meat, sausages, eggs and other food items fixed to rope ladders tied from one pole to the other. Mounted on top of the pole was a statue representing fame holding the coat of arms of the Grandmaster. At a given signal the youths climbed the slippery poles, grabbed what they could and then descended down and forced their way through the crowd who did not hesitate to nick some of the spoils. The lucky lad who reached the statue on top used to be given a sum of money. Nowadays this tradition is kept in Nadur by setting up a greased pole in the middle of the square on Sunday, during the Carnival parade organised by the Local Council, and at its top food items are placed hanging from a cartwheel. A number of boys try to go up the pole and grip the dangling objects in the shortest time possible. The boy or girl who succeeds to grip an object/s in the shortest time wins the contest.
These
last few years since the set up of the Local Council, Carnival is also
being organised on a big scale. Is this central organisation being
counter productive at the detriment of the traditional carnival!
According to Dr Vicki Ann even in the last ten years the traditional carnival has underwent a rapid transformation, it has become less macabre and perhaps less spontaneous! We are noting that there are fewer participants over the years. Not everybody agrees with Dr Cremona but the Local Council should give more thought to this development before endeavouring to spend more funds on the organised carnival.
