GozoNews.Com

The Malta Tourism Authority in co-operation with the Ministry for Gozo and the Gozo Tourism Association held it’s Grand Masters Pageant in Victoria on Saturday, the event was a great success.

The pageant re-evoked an undocumented visit of Grand Master Jean de Vallette to Gozo. Following the Siege of 1565 the Citadel’s fortifications were inspected to ensure that the fort could withstand future incursions by Ottoman corsairs.

It was befitting that such a grand pageant was held on September the 8th, which is the day when the Maltese and Gozitans celebrate the lifting of the siege by the Turkish Armada.

During the pageant the Grand Master De Vallette was welcomed by the population of Rabat as he approached it-Tokk on foot under a baldachin. He was accompanied by his retinue and then proceeded to the Citadel where the governor of the town greeted him. The Grand Master then paid homage to the temple of the Holy Virgin following which he inspected the state of the fortifications of the Citadel.

Gozo had, during the time of the Knights of St. John, always been more vulnerable than Malta to attacks by the Ottoman Turks. In 1551, Dragut, on having failed to ransack any of the Maltese towns, decided to assault Gozo’s Citadel with a vengeance and carried off some 5000 people into slavery; practically the entire population of Gozo at the time. During the Great Siege of 1565 the Gozitan population was thankfully spared the same fate as the Ottoman Turks focused their onslaught on Malta’s harbour towns.

Following the Great Siege the reverence towards the Holy Virgin as a Child - Maria Bambina - increased many fold as it was on her feast day 8th September that the Siege was lifted. Since then the feast is also referred to as il-Vitorja, that is Our Lady of Victory. This feast nowadays is celebrated in three Maltese parishes and one in Gozo, that of Xaghra.

The pageant saw the participation of some 80 re-enactors.