The first two days of November are quiet, familial and — this being Malta — involve a considerable amount of food.
The first of November is All Saints. The second is All Souls — Il-Għid tal-Erwieħ, the feast of the souls. In Malta these are not sombre days exactly. They are family days, which here means a table.
Remembering, and then lunch
The cemeteries are visited in the morning, cleaned and filled with flowers and candles. And then, as with most things on this island, everyone goes to eat — usually with the older generation, usually for several hours.
The food turns properly wintry around now. Soups come back: kawlata, thick with pork and vegetables, and soppa tal-armla, the widow's soup, whose name tells you exactly what kind of household invented it. Slow-braised everything.
A Maltese day of remembrance ends the way most Maltese days end. Around a table, for hours.
Open through the holiday, every day, noon till midnight.
Photo: Frank Vincentz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
The first of November is All Saints. The second is All Souls — Il-Għid tal-Erwieħ, the feast of the souls. In Malta these are not sombre days exactly. They are family days, which here means a table.
Remembering, and then lunch
The cemeteries are visited in the morning, cleaned and filled with flowers and candles. And then, as with most things on this island, everyone goes to eat — usually with the older generation, usually for several hours.
The food turns properly wintry around now. Soups come back: kawlata, thick with pork and vegetables, and soppa tal-armla, the widow's soup, whose name tells you exactly what kind of household invented it. Slow-braised everything.
A Maltese day of remembrance ends the way most Maltese days end. Around a table, for hours.
Open through the holiday, every day, noon till midnight.
Photo: Frank Vincentz / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Previous post