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It's a Public Holiday today, the Feast of St Paul's Shipwreck on Malta. The Acts of the Apostles details the story of the Apostle Paul as he is arrested in Caeserea (now in Israel, in biblical times in the Judea Province of the Roman Empire), and after being rescued from a mob by a Roman commander, his transport by ship to Rome to be tried for the crimes of being a revolutionary and for teaching resurrection of the dead.
Acts is widely believed to have been written by Luke, author of the eponymous Gospel, who accompanied Paul on this voyage to Rome in AD 59. He writes that 'a great storm' him them on route in the Mediterranean Sea and after 14 days of drifting they washed up on Malta, in what is known today as St Paul's Bay. While in Malta Paul is, according to Luke, bitten by a viper, and when he doesn't die as expected, the locals proclaim him to be a god. He spends 3 months on Malta before continuing the voyage to Italy.
Malta has the most Public and National holidays of any country in the EU, 14 in total. England, by comparison, has a grudging and miserly 8. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the temperature is in the 20's and the Maltese and Gozitans are out in their droves for the long weekend. Apartments which have been empty all winter are occupied, restaurants are full, beer and ice-cream sell plentifully, plants leap skywards with vigour and purpose. I'm tempted to believe that after the fuss and bluster of the Maltese winter, that this could be spring?
Acts is widely believed to have been written by Luke, author of the eponymous Gospel, who accompanied Paul on this voyage to Rome in AD 59. He writes that 'a great storm' him them on route in the Mediterranean Sea and after 14 days of drifting they washed up on Malta, in what is known today as St Paul's Bay. While in Malta Paul is, according to Luke, bitten by a viper, and when he doesn't die as expected, the locals proclaim him to be a god. He spends 3 months on Malta before continuing the voyage to Italy.
Malta has the most Public and National holidays of any country in the EU, 14 in total. England, by comparison, has a grudging and miserly 8. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the temperature is in the 20's and the Maltese and Gozitans are out in their droves for the long weekend. Apartments which have been empty all winter are occupied, restaurants are full, beer and ice-cream sell plentifully, plants leap skywards with vigour and purpose. I'm tempted to believe that after the fuss and bluster of the Maltese winter, that this could be spring?