This picture which I took yesterday shows how my hometown parish church has been decked up for the Christmas festive season which will end with Epiphany next Sunday.
The locality of San Gwann can be considered as a suburb of Sliema. It has grown considerably in the last 50 years; in fact within the span of 50 years the community has grown from 300 – mostly farmers and herdsmen to 13,000 inhabitants (I can still remember in my youth coming with friends for a walk through pathways and streets with goats and sheep grazing and strolling in the middle of the road unhindered). I have now been living on the outskirts of the town since 1977 and have seen fields being cleared to make way for houses and flats until there are almost no field left. The Franciscan Capuchin Friars who had been entrusted with the running of religious activity in the area since World War II built a new church to accommodate the increasing population which was consecrated in 1962; it was raised to parish in 1965 and dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes. The church is rather plain and is not as ornate as other older churches found in Malta.
Thank you so very much for looking at my pictures and for your lovely comments on my yesterday's, picture. You can keep the cauldron of heat for yourselves, Jennifer. Here it will soon start warming up and occasionally we too get similar weather when the heat is unbearable but we cool very easily in the sea.
interesting information once again, pity there are no fields left any more, at least you have the memories! the church looks lovely
not as hot here today thank goodness!
that's so beautiful - we keep the Christmas & Epiphany season to Candlemas in England - so some of the decorations will come down, but many will stay up
not as hot here today thank goodness!