Anthropology News November 2008

24
K N O WL E D G E E X C H A N G E
BRYCE PEAKE
BRANDEIS U
In recent years, residents of Gozo, Malta, have increasingly seen
more and more tourists participating in what they consider to be
private community events. This photo series examines a commu-
nity of Gozitans during the Festa du San Lawrenz, and the effects of
tourism on this celebration of the community patron saint. A tradi-
tional Maltese-Catholic festival grounded in the ideal of creating
communal solidarity, the Festa takes on new meaning in the tourist-
filled streets as shop and restaurant cart owners struggle to make the
feast both culturally viable for locals and attractive to the secular
masses. In its new form, the Festa du San Lawrenz unites a multicul-
tural Catholic farm community and secular tourist group searching
for authentic experiences.
Participants from both groups mingle, purchasing hamburgers, ice
cream, toy instruments and small fireworks. As shopkeepers sell these
products of a globalized Malta, and both locals and visitors consume
them, they are actively changing Festa traditions and ascribing new
local meanings to products of global commerce, turning the global
into the glocal. Restaurants and shops carrying Italian gelato,
American Jazz toy instruments and Asian fireworks all become
integrated in the festivities, finding a place among Maltese pastizzi,
parish marching band club performances and the celebratory
procession.
As overtly public displays of identity, the vibrant colors celebrating
San Lawrenzs sainthood and the roaring sounds of traditional songs
from the parish band, along with newly integrated elements, are a
striking contrast to the quiet landscape of everyday Gozo. After the
fireworks most tourists flock from the streets, leaving many Gozitans
in the center parish square, but the festivities do not end. These
Gozitans continue to celebrate their local solidarity, pride and faith,
carrying on old traditions and defining the new.
Bryce Peake is a masters candidate in cultural production at Brandeis
University. His research interests include questions of identity and authen-
ticity in relation to place, sound and popular culture.
All photos in this essay are courtesy of Bryce Peake.
The procession of parish members leads to the village center, where the church
is located. Each town contains a similar city center: a large open space situated
around the village church.
Fireworks planted in the primary corridor leading to the village church are lit
starting at midnight, to honor and celebrate San Lawrenzs patron saint.
Band clubs are comprised of community members involved in various parishes
across the island who enjoy performing march versions of traditional Maltese
church literature.
Celebrating the Festa du San Lawrenz
Local Tradition, Glocal Objects
MORE PHOT OS AT WWW. F L I CKR. COM/ PHOT OS/
ANT HROPOL OGYNEWS
Vendors line the street with novelties and food from all around the globe,
including fireworks, toy instruments, dolls and childrens costumes.