About this festa

Ħamrun is one of Malta's most densely populated towns and home to some of the island's most passionately celebrated festas. San Ġejtanu in August is widely described as the most intense festa on the island, with fierce and good-natured rivalry between the two local band clubs. The Immaculate Conception is celebrated twice, in July and December, giving Ħamrun's festa calendar a distinctive character. If you want to experience the undiluted passion of the Maltese festa tradition, Ħamrun is where to go. The Immaculate Conception celebrates the belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin, preserved by a singular grace of God in anticipation of her role as the Mother of Christ. Defined as Catholic dogma by Pope Pius IX in 1854, the feast is celebrated on 8 December and is a public holiday in Malta, giving Ħamrun's December celebration a particular solemnity.