Good Friday: This is how the Passion of Jesus is depicted in Malta

Today, Christians in Malta join others across the world in commemorating Good Friday, the penultimate day of Holy Week, representing Jesus’ crucifixion and his death at Calvary.

MaltaToday visited a chapel in Rabat, in search of the liturgical mood of Good Friday, where we discovered an intricately crafted large-scale model of Jerusalem, incorporating some of Holy Week’s main events.

“My idea was to make something different, so I created a replica of some areas of Jerusalem at the time of Christ,” Richard Azzopardi, a history enthusiast who put together the entire model said, “I worked on it for three months.”

Richard told us that he had recreated the most important Holy Week scenes in the model: the Last Supper, Jesus’ last meal with his apostles; the garden of Gethsemane, where Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus; Pilate’s court, where the prefect condemned Jesus to death; and Golgotha, the hill on which Jesus was crucified.

“I did lots of research on the biblical story and on how Jerusalem would have looked 2,000 years ago. I then created a visual depiction of all that through this model,” he said, explaining he had been creating exhibitions in this spot for the past three years.

“When it was ready, I had to move the model I had of St Paul’s shipwreck, and put this one in its place, here in this 400-year-old chapel.”

Just metres away from the chapel we came across the L’Isle-Adam band club, exhibiting reproductions of a myriad of biblical artefacts from the days surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion - from a bag containing the 30 silver coins Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin for, to the sword Simon Peter used to cut Malchus’ ear off.

As we left the band club and walked through Rabat’s narrow streets, we came across a confectionary selling traditional Maltese sweets.

The shop owner showed us brittle Maltese nougat, customarily eaten once Easter Sunday arrives.

More sweets tempted us at the entrance to Mdina. Kwarezimal and cakes made of almonds and honey are traditionally consumed during the 40 days of Lent, since they don’t contain sugar, at least if made according to age-old recipes.

We later ventured to Zebbug, another home to many Good Friday exhibitions.

Crosses and crucifixes dotted the streets, giving the town a distinct feel of the Passion's mood, and providing a fitting end to our brief journey into the spirit of the biblical story of what happened more than two millennia ago.