Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/809226
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 APRIL 2017 17 Holy Week Good Friday and the statue that Frankie is proc- urator of. He said that within two years' time at the most, the statue will have to be restored. "That will be a major expense, but the statue is more than 55 years old now, and it is time to do it," he said. Of course, the thought that there might not be the money to carry out such a restoration does not even cross his mind. "If I could not afford it, I would go and borrow money, sell something, I would do anything." Indeed, some other suggestions as to what he and the other men in the bar would be willing to do, as long as the statue gets the care it deserves, are not suitable for printing. Frankie told me that one pole on another statue was recently sold for more than €4,000. But not him, he would never sell. For Frankie and others like him in Zejtun, this is about pride of ownership, and having something worthwhile to pass on to the next generation. And when I left the Juve Bar, af- ter only a short talk with Frankie, I was glad that I got to see a little of what he is really about and why he does this. To march with the Legions While in Zejtun, I also met Re- nato Spiteri, another Good Friday enthusiast, but of a different kind. Renato looks ahead to Good Fri- day each year, to the day he gets to put on his Roman armour and march in the village procession. Like all the other 550 or so people who participate in Zejtun's Good Friday procession, Renato bought his own attire, of course following strict guidelines. Like so many other men, women and children who will be partici- pating in village processions come Friday, Renato says that his passion goes back to when he was a young boy. "It helps that in a village like Ze- jtun, people really love the Good Friday procession, because not all villages are like this," he told me. He is very proud of his armour, and rightly so. And not only because it had cost him more than €5,800, but be- cause it is something tangible that he intends to pass on to his son or nephew. And speaking of commitment, Renato has a Roman legion wrist- guard tattooed on his left arm. On his right arm: S.P.Q.R. It can hardly get any more pas- sionate than that. Volunteers, but on behalf of the parish In Gharghur, I met two brothers who work with the parish's feast committee and other volunteers to put up a Good Friday exhibition every year. But Bertu and Joe Zarb, have also put up their own time and money to do so, and are immensely glad and proud of what they do. The exhibition, including all the most popular statuettes we are familiar with, is set up within the committee's own storage garage and it is as mesmerising as the sto- ry I learned. Because all the statuettes on display, except for one, actually belong to Bertu; he has been col- lecting Good Friday statuettes for 27 years and has spent an insane amount of money on his passion. The exhibition alone must have cost Bertu anything between €7,000 and €8,000 but he brushes aside any reference to what he's spent. "This is something I love doing, this is why I, my brother, and so many others like us, spend hours in this garage every day, all year round, working on restoring some piece or other," he said. Bertu explains that all his statu- ettes are the work of Gozitans Louis Gauci and Charles Vella. The two artists, I have since learned, are among the most respected on the islands. The lone statuette in the display not belonging to Bertu – 'Il-Mar- but' – is the proud possession of Dennis Spiteri, who has only re- cently started his own private col- lection with the statuette by Lorry Baldacchino. Dennis is nonetheless a very ac- tive member in the community, setting up one of the nationally top-judged mechanised Christmas cribs. (By the way, that alone cost him more than €14,000 to set up, and he keeps adding and tinkering with it every year.) Together with James Lupi Spen- cer, Martin and the Zarb broth- ers, Dennis forms the core group behind the exhibition, but they all agree they would not be able to do anything without the support of many others, including the com- mittee's women and youth sec- tions. Let's not forget that these people don't get anything in return from these activities; any donations they receive are immediately routed to the committee and the parish, be- cause they are not in for the mon- ey, else they would not be spending so much out of pocket in the first place. What they do get in return is the appreciation of casual visitors, the respect of other enthusiasts and the gleam of excitement in the eyes of the children who flock to the display. A display like no other On the bypass to St Thomas Bay, I stop to visit an exhibit by Leli Bal- dacchino. His is different from any I've seen for two reasons: He has built a small set, like a large Christ- mas crib, but depicting major mo- ments in the last days of Jesus' life. And he has turned a whole room into a scale replica of the inside of a church that is amazing to behold in its detail and majesty. Leli explained to me that he too has spent years getting his exhibit together, making sure everything is exactly to scale and that anything he includes is a faithful reproduc- tion of the original. I could have spent hours oohing and aahing at all the minute de- tails and the intricate and delicate ganutell work (which Leli told me was the work of his sister Maria) and the precise woodwork, which he himself does with the help of his nephew Clinton. And although he said he could not put a price to his exhibition, Leli did point out that the dam- ask alone had cost him more than €1,000 and the gold thread and tri- foglie decorations had cost another €1,000 by themselves. The statuettes, he said, were all the work of Nenu and Renato De- lia, but everything else he had done himself, with the help of friends and relatives. Looking around, I told him he must have spent more than €20,000 on the exhibit and he did not argue with the figure. "It's not that I don't care how much I spent," he said. "It's just that for me this is not about mon- ey, but about a passion that I can show to others." They serve and protect, and some of them also do this My last stop saw me walk into the Police headquarters to check out the Good Friday exhibition the force has been organising for years. There I met WPC Isabelle Galea and WPC Bernardette Cutajar, two of the organising team that I was surprised to hear only included two other colleagues: PC Daniel Scerri and PC Mario Muscat. But although a small team, they managed to put together an exhibi- tion that is not to be missed. The salt paintings on display, some of them the work of WPC Galea, were exquisite and a sight to behold. The detail, colour and fea- tures were out of this world. I learned that many of the other items on display, including Roman armour replicas, an Arc of the Cov- enant and weaponry were mostly made out of cardboard, painstak- ingly made to replicate the origi- nals at the hands of PC Muscat. The result was uncanny as you cannot tell the difference without feeling the material. Sharing the passion I must admit, before I met Frank- ie, Renato, Bertu, Joe, Dennis or Leli, I was a bit sceptical of men who would spend so much time, and oh so much money, on what was for me nothing more than a hobby. But after I learned their stories and heard the passion in their voic- es and the conviction of their work, I found myself looking at these men with a new-found respect. For theirs might be a passion I do not share, but it is damn focused and consistent. And let's face it. In these times where interest spans are counted in minutes and where tradition seems to be shunned by many, these men have – knowingly or not – taken it upon themselves to carry the torch for enthusiasts like themselves but also for people like me. That is a responsibility they glad- ly accept. Frankie Delia (left) with other enthusiasts at Juve Bar