Easter in Malta is (usually) quite the big celebration and a highlight in the Maltese calendar year. This year, with celebrations and customs totally out of the window (thank you, Coronavirus), we thought we’d share quite the cool tradition done during Holy Week in malta and in other Mediterranean countries.
During Holy Week – particularly from Maundy Thursday to Holy Saturday – an instrument replaces the regular chimes from churches’ bell towers, known as ‘cuqlajta.’ The wooden rachet-style (no, not the TikTok song) instrument is also known as ‘cuqlajqa’ or ‘coklajta’ depending on the parish you form part of.
The cuqlajta’s early days
The arrival of the ċuqlajta in Malta harks back to the Middle Ages. Between the years 1282 to 1530, Malta, Gozo and indeed Sicily were under Aragonese rule. With the arrival of prominent Sicilian families by the early 15th Century, and the arrival of the Knights of St John in 1530, there was a continuation of strong Spanish influence. We can assume that the Sicilians, Spanish and Southern Italians brought with them not only their customs and traditions, but the instruments themselves, with very similar types of ratchets still found in other parts of the Med nowadays.
Malta’s cuqlajta
In Malta alone, the ċuqlajta comes in varying sizes, from ones large enough to call out from a belfry, as is the case in Nadur, Żejtun, Għargħur and Qala amongst others, to ones which are used inside the church, as found in localities such as Naxxar and Birkirkara. Interestingly, some instruments are hand-twirled and used in the home, and were actually given to children during Holy Week to be used instead of their toys.
Wooden instruments with similar purposes date back even before Christian times, and have been used for centuries to chase away evil spirits. However, the ċuqlajta has much more to do with replacing what we associate with Holy Mass, the joyous ring of church bells, with the sadder clack of a rotary wooden mechanism.
Once Good Friday and Holy Saturday are over with and The Resurrection of Christ is celebrated come Easter morning, the joy returns with the sound of church bells ringing out from each town and village's parish.