‘Il-logħob tan-nar’ (Pyrotechnics) is the essence of Maltese festivities. These spectacles have blazed their passage into the heart of the traditional feasts creating their own niche. ‘Ma hemmx festa mingħajr nar’ (There is no feast without fireworks) is the local popular saying. The use of fireworks is not only a means of celebrating, but also a means of conveying a message, manifesting a prayer, manifesting one’s masterly skill on fire.

 

All firework displays are let off to coincide with a traditional schedule that primarily includes the highlights of the week-long liturgical celebrations. The quantity and quality of these audio-visual fire displays are let off to coincide with specific moments of the festa, particularly liturgical ones. In the confines of the locality, these firing sounds serve as a connecting link between the people in their neighbourhood and the festivities taking place, whilst from afar, beyond the locality's defined boundaries, these timely discharges indicate the locality's festive ambiance.

 

For generations the traditional craft of making fireworks has been proudly passed on from one generation to another. The skill of making fireworks is entrenched in our culture. This activity was encouraged by the military division of The Knights of St John and as early as the 16th century fireworks' let offs were taken up by ecclesiastical authorities to celebrate these feasts. In the late 19th and early 20th century English and Italian fire masters exerted their influence on the local craftsmen, who in return gradually developed their own skills to create Malta's renowned festa fireworks displays.

 

Pyrotechnics is a skill, an art, and a science. Year in, year out dedicated men, and even women, manufacture fireworks at their factory purely as a hobby for the ‘festa’ of their beloved Saint, to an extent that it may take over their lives.

 

Taken individually each firework factory boasts of its milestone achievements, taken collectively they are a rich portfolio of Malta's cultural heritage. 

 

There are three types of pyrotechnic displays, ‘ġigdifoku’ (ground fireworks), roof top let offs and ‘nar tal-ajru’ (air spectacles), and what spectacles they are! Throngs of people crowd at each venue and often these exhibits are pyro musical. This activity has been regulated by law since 1904 and along the years legislation has been adjusted so that firework displays are let off in accordance with the festive customs.

 

Ground fireworks spectacles are customarily held in the village square on the eve of feast day and kick off late at night to finish in the early hours of the morning. The artistic combinations of these set pieces are unimaginable and range from simple static symbolic designs to an array of ‘irdieden’ (Catherine wheels), to attractive three-dimensional mechanized contraptions, to the simultaneous ignition of a ‘tapit’ (erected set pieces that are fire triggered in synchrony) to provide very distinctive shows which are famous for their artistic innovation.

 

Roof top or terrace let offs are very popular and these spectacles may be the traditional ‘musketterija’ or the nocturnal discharge of a barrage of ‘gassijiet tad-dmugħ’ (smoke canisters), ‘gassijiet tal-fjamma kulurita’ (bengal lights) and ‘stoppini’ (small bore-coloured stars) usually synchronized with the performance of a live brass band.

 

Aerial fireworks have steadily developed into the mesmerizing spectacular displays (daytime: ‘kaxxa spanjola’, nighttime: ‘kaxxa infernali’) we enjoy to-day, and which are at times made up into elaborate choreographic pyro-musical shows. Their splendour dazzles Malta's skies, cutting kaleidoscopic patterns and umbrella streaks expressed in colour, flashes of light and sound, and when multiple let offs are synchronized with the harmony of musical compositions one cannot marvel at the rhythmic and graceful dancing of exploding fireworks illuminating the skies. 

 

Malta is especially acclaimed for its traditional ‘murtali tal-bomba’ (maroons) and all types of multi-break shells (‘beraq’, ‘murtali tal-logħob’ and ‘murtali tal-kulur’) whose shells are usually decorated with images or symbols of their beloved Saint, localities emblems and other distinctive marks. It is this fervour and zeal which have established these communal festive events amongst the world's best pyrotechnic exhibits and made Maltese craftsmen amongst the most renowned world pyrotechnic masters.