Last Updated on: 16th May 2024, 10:44 am
Malta’s Carnival 2024 will take place between 9-13 February.
Malta’s carnival, Il-Karnival Ta’ Malta, takes place in February in the lead-up to Lent and is one of Europe’s oldest and most celebrated festivals. Jonathan has experienced many Mardi Gras festivals in the past, mainly in New Orleans, but for me, this was my first time.
It was fun, jam-packed, apparently a lot more family-focused than New Orleans’ Mardi Gras and loud! Very loud! And Malta’s favourite song, Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ (don’t ask me why, but it’s a Maltese favourite; visit Malta in the summer, and you’ll hear it everywhere) blared loudly and frequently through the city’s loudspeakers.
History Of The Maltese Carnival
The first Carnival celebrations in Malta can be traced back as far as the 1400s, but it wasn’t until the 1530s that the carnival reached its peak popularity.
Carnival celebrations during the mid 16th century consisted mainly of the Knights of St John, proving their skills in a variety of tournaments and pageants, followed by huge banquets. The Grand Master Piero de Ponte at this time had to pre-approve all carnival plans to ensure they wouldn’t become too extravagant or elaborate.
However, several years later, the festivities had apparently become quite extravagant and wild, and interestingly, Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette, the man responsible for creating Malta’s capital city Valletta, was not amused. In 1560, he banned wearing masks in public and reprimanded the knights for their rambunctious celebrations.
In 1639, under Grand Master Juan de Lascaris-Castellar, women were also banned from wearing masks and taking part in carnival balls that were organised by the knights. If they were caught, the consequence would be a public whipping. Not sure if that applied just for the women or the knights too!
The locals, needless to say, were not impressed with these prohibitions and would blame the Jesuits. They would taunt them and demand the Jesuits to leave Malta. There’s a saying in Malta,” qjsek wick laskri, “which means “your face looks like Lascaris’ face” and is used to describe someone who is grumpy and doesn’t want other people to enjoy themselves.
Nowadays, the carnival is all about having fun!
When Is The Carnival In Malta Celebrated?
Malta’s carnival is celebrated right before the start of Lent. The word ‘Carnival’ comes from the Latin words ‘carne vale’ meaning ‘farewell to meat.’ The Catholic church used to forbid eating meat during the forty days of Lent.
As a result, Roman Catholic countries would celebrate carnival and indulge in all kinds of foods and drink before beginning the fasting period.
What’s The Maltese Carnival Like?
Carnival in Malta is very colourful. It is said that during Carnival, Valletta, which is known as ‘the city built by gentlemen for gentlemen,’ turns into the ‘City of Fools!’
Carnival festivities include colourful parades with massive floats and marching bands, music and lots of delicious food and drink, and some late-night street parties (those are mainly in Paceville).
For the five days of carnival, anyone can dress up, but it was mainly the children you would see in costume. There were loads of little princesses, superheroes and clowns. Clowns are always scary-looking, aren’t they?
Malta’s Carnival Floats
The carnival floats were terrific. They were enormous and extremely colourful with their brightly painted, gigantic papier-mache cardboard structures. You could see how much work, time, and effort must have gone into creating them. Obviously, designing the best carnival floats is a serious business in Malta.
In fact, local carnival groups spend a whole year preparing for the four days of carnival events and to participate and compete in the Carnival parade.
Themes for the carnival floats range from people to social and political issues to mythical creatures or animals.
Accompanying the carnival floats are marching bands, dancers, marching bands and costumed figures. Prizes are awarded for the best carnival costumes and dances. The main carnival parades take place in Valletta, and around the Granaries in Floriana, which is just outside Valletta.
Have you ever experienced a Mardi Gras carnival? Tell us about your experience in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.
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What vibrant costumes, this looks like such a great event to see. Amazing that Carnevale (interesting to find out the origins of the word) has been going on for so many centuries. It’s funny that Sweet Caroline has been chosen as Malta’s theme song.
Sweet Caroline is the National anthem of Malta 😂
This looks like a lot of fun to watch! A much larger scale celebration than what we do here in the UK which is to make pancakes. Some of those carnival floats are phenomenal, I love Elvis!
I do miss having lemon and sugar pancakes though!
Wow they go all out for Lent! All we do in the UK is make pancakes/crepes to use up the last of the eggs before fasting! Love that they’ve got King Fool featured in the City of Fools … wouldn’t be the same without him! …. and who doesn’t love Neil Diamond! I wonder why they love Sweet Caroline so much, it’s a great sing along tune, but very random.
Love lemon and sugar pancakes. No idea why they love Sweet Caroline so much but you hear it a lot hear at festivals and during wedding season lol.
Very interesting blog! I love those colorful characters and costumes. It is interesting that during the carne vale, they bid farewell to meat for 40 days! I see a lot of Arabic influence here – the fasting and the whipping! Thank for for this lovely blog. 🙂
We just finished Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It was another wild and crazy year. It looks like Malta has got it just right! Wonderful photos from Jon and information from Sarah Jane! Thanks for the reporting!!!
This Carnival certainly brings a vibrant burst of colour to Valletta. Interesting to read insights of banning masks and public whippings. I’ve also learnt that many Carnivals that place in February. I’ve attended a number in Crete and also the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival in the Port of Spain.
Those costumes. That color! Malta is on my list and I would love to visit at Carnival. Cracked me up that Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline is still rocking the charts there. Gorgeous, gorgeous photos. Looks like you had a ring-side seat. Definitely pin-worthy!
The photos themselves are an experience. I can only imagine what it was like seeing all of those colors and costumes in person. So fun!
Fascinating! I have been to the Carnival in Venice and thought this might be a lot like it—but it looks as though Malta has gone over and above! Love the modern spin with the floats and pop culture. I could do without scary clowns, though LOL! Thank you for the history lesson, too. It’s always interesting to learn the background. This sounds like a festival I’d love to catch when in Malta!
Oh what a fantastic even to visit!
I love booking trips that include some type of festival, like Mardi Gras, Beltane or Yorvik 🙂
We loved visiting New Orleans for Mardi Gras. And would love to visit other Carnivales around the world. Good to know there is a fun one in Malta! Fascinating that there was originally a group to approve all plans to ensure they were not too extravagant or elaborate. Not surprised to read that this is no longer adhered to. It looks like a great time to be in Malta. Although I am sure it would be a bit crazy.
I’m usually really not the carnival type – I even didn’t like it in Brazil 😀 Anyway, these boats and costumes look really very artistic and tasteful. Maybe Malta could convince me 😉