Christmas in Gozo, past and present

How is Christmas celebrated in Gozo today? Learn about Christmas traditions, games that children used to play, the Crib and how to make one, step by step instructions.

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Playing with Hoops

Back in the late 1950's there were not too many cars in the streets of Victoria, Gozo. In fact I remember the time when only the doctor had one, brown and shiny (if my memory serves me well). I remember this car only too well because one evening I had a narrow escape when he almost hit me when rounding a corner at some speed. At about 4.30 pm I was on my way to the Oratory a sort of Catholic Youth Club and as I rounded the curb, there he was missing me by inches.

We played simple games, almost always in company with other boys, running around barefoot most of the time. We wore shorts in those days supported by braces. The braces were part of the trousers made of the same cloth and attached at the back to the waist. We wore them crossed at the back and buttoned them in front. Young boys used to wear short pants above knee length up to age 12 or 13 and then as we came into our teens we changed over to long trousers. At first we were a little shy to appear in public in long trousers, but eventually we got used to them.

In the quick sketch above the 3 boys are seen playing with hoops. We used to drive them or control them with a wooden stick with a bit of bent wire attached to its end. We ran races and became quite experts swerving and rounding corners. The hoops were sometimes of thick solid iron about 12 inches diameter and sometimes less and were probably part of the hub of a large cartwheel. At other times the hoop was made of sheet-metal like tin or zinc and these came perhaps from broken wine casks or were discarded by the coopers.

In the old days, children had much more fun. The games were more enjoyable since children played together, competed, shouted and screamed and learned to live with each other. They played in the open air and spent their energy in a healthy manner unlike the children of today who spend hours on end huddled over a computer keyboard.

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Note: Hoops are used by a cooper (a skilled tradesman who makes casks) to hold the numerous staves of a cask pressed tightly together.

Folklore. What is folklore?

Folklore may be considered to embrace all the habits and customs of any given civilization, all its numerous activities, the quality of the houses people lived in, the dress they wore, the food they ate, their social dealings with one another, their education and religious life, their festivals and amusements, together with beliefs in the afterworld, as well as innumerable other facets of human life.

Maltese folklore is concerned with all this. It explores the history, literature, folktales, old wives tales, legends, children's rhymes and games, traditional herbal medicine, nicknames, birth and death rituals, feasts, long-forgotten murders and old customs from Malta and Gozo.