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. St Cajetan was an Italian priest born in Vicenza in 1480 who co-founded the Theatine religious order in 1524, dedicated to reforming the Church from within through prayer, poverty and service to the sick and poor. He established one of the world's oldest charitable banks to protect the poor from usurers, and is the patron saint of job seekers and the unemployed. He was canonised in 1671 and his feast day falls on 7 August.