Every year, on 28th October, the sister island of Gozo celebrates Jum Ghawdex (Gozo Day).

This serves as a perfect opportunity for the lesser-known island to shine a light on its rich history – often overshadowed by Malta’s.

In light of this, Gozo’s National Library took to social media to mark the 224th anniversary of one very important event in Gozitan history.

“On 28th October 1798, the Gozitans, together with English and Portuguese fleets, reclaimed Gozo from its French rulers,” they wrote.

“The French rule over Gozo lasted for 141 days. A provisional government made up entirely of Gozitans then led the island independently,” the page concluded.

The National Archives of Malta highlighted that the Gozitans were particularly led by Parish Priest Saver Cassar throughout said takeover. The priest’s efforts remain recognised to this very day, with a road in Nadur being named after him.

Many are those that took to social media earlier today to mark this important occasion. Amongst these was none other than Jo Etienne Abela – Minister for Active Ageing.

“On this day we celebrate all that makes us Gozitan. From our people and story, to our traditions, dialects, feasts, intelligence, enterprise, and everything else that we are proud of,” he wrote.

In celebration of this anniversary, the Gozo Regional Council also launched a new project titled Idea Ghal Ghawdex (An Idea For Gozo).

This project will see representatives from said council visit Gozo’s secondary school and sixth forms to ask students to write down their own ideas for Gozo.

“These ideas will be collected and presented to Gozo’s mayors in the upcoming Regional Councils meeting. The mayors will choose the best ideas for their locality and implement them over the course of a year with active participation from the students that came up with the ideas,” Kunsill Regjonali Ghawdex explained.

National Library - Gozo / Facebook