The feast of Saint Cajetan is celebrated on the first Sunday following the 7th of August every year and attracts tourists and people
from all over the island. It is undoubtedly one of the biggest feasts celebrated on the island. The feast is best known for its grand
marches that take place all week. The parish’s band clubs, St. Joseph and St. Cajetan, are two of the most popular band clubs on the
whole island. ...
For the week, the church façade is lit up with many colours while streets are decorated with large banners. The main street is adorned
with many different statues, mostly of angles, saints and people related to St. Cajetan and even statues of St. Cajetan himself.
Activities, street parties and band marches are held from Monday to Sunday. The popular band march on Sunday morning is one of the
most popular on the island, attracting thousands to the main streets of Hamrun. For the whole day, the main streets of the town go
vehicle free and are instead filled with people adorned from head to toe in the club’s colours, blue for St. Joseph and red for St.
Cajetan. The Sunday march starts right after the high mass at 11am and goes on till 3pm, reaching its climax from 2pm onwards
when both bands start to approach their respective club.
The feast celebrations reach their close on Sunday evening with a procession with the statue of St. Cajetan. The statue, made from
plaster by the sculptor Carlo Darminin in 1888, is taken out of the church at 7pm and taken around the streets of the town. Towards
the end of the procession, as the statue starts getting closer to the church once again, people start gathering to see the famous
run of the statue up the church parvis stairs. It is very difficult to take the statue up the church parvis stairs normally because
the statue is quite heavy while the steps are very steep, so the statue bearers make a run for it. This has become a tradition,
even copied by other parishes around, and many come to Hamrun to see it happening.
