3153) "ir-Re tal-Karnival", (or "Carnival"), Republic of Malta: 2.5 Euro Cupro-nickel (CuNi) and 10 Euro Silver Proof and Colour Coins celebrate the Carnival Week in Malta: Date/Year of Coins issue: 11.01.2024:
The Header/Banner is titled - "KARNIVAL TA MALTA". It showcases the Cupro-nickel and Silver Coins against a background of the Carnival celebration.
The Central Bank of Malta has released Collector Coins that highlight one of Malta's most popular and longest-celebrated traditions — the "Carnival Week".
The Carnival is celebrated in February during the week leading up to Ash Wednesday and lasts for five days.
The Festival takes place across the islands, with the main celebrations in the capital, Valletta, where thousands gather to watch parades of colourful floats, music bands, and partygoers in bright costumes and exaggerated masks.
The Carnival has been a prominent celebration in the islands since the incumbency of the 45th Grand Master of the Order of Saint John, Grand Master Piero de Ponte, in 1535, but the origins of Maltese carnival have been celebrated since the 1400s.
It was in the city of Birgu where knights first began parades and tournaments to showcase their skills, as well as encourage merriment.
Centuries later, the carnival has become a truly popular household tradition.
Carnival week in Malta is guaranteed to lift the spirits of the entire island as during the week, it’s all about colour, masks, costumes, music, and cheer.
The main party is in the capital of Valletta, but other cities and villages also have their own variation on the festivities.
The Maltese island Gozo, has a more macabre and humorous vibe.
Malta carnival is one of the most important Maltese events, both in a religious and cultural way, and attracts thousands of tourists looking to experience the festivities.
More about the Festival:
"Carnival" (Maltese: il-Karnival ta' Malta) has had an important place on the Maltese cultural calendar for about seven centuries, having been celebrated since the mid-15th century.
The carnival is held during the week leading up to Ash Wednesday, and typically includes masked balls, fancy dress and grotesque mask competitions, lavish late-night parties, a colourful, ticker-tape parade of allegorical floats presided over by "King Carnival", marching bands and costumed revellers.
In 1560, Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette, felt he had to reprimand his knights for going overboard with their festivities. He had allowed the wearing of masks in public (which was forbidden in Malta for the rest of the year).
The knights decorated the ships of the Order's fleet in the harbour and there was music, dance and rivalry as never seen in Malta before.
La Valette was not amused at the number of people wearing masks, who had been invited to celebrate Carnival aboard the vessels and held up at the Grand Harbour in unfavourable weather conditions.
In 1639, Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris issued a bando prohibiting women from wearing masks or participating in balls organised by the knights' auberges, on penalty of being publicly whipped.
Another bando was that nobody could wear a costume to represent the devil. Neither the knights nor the women took kindly to the prohibitions, blaming the Jesuit Father Cassia who was the Grand Master's confessor.
Parata (a Maltese sword dance"):
True to an age-old tradition, "Carnival" was ushered in by the Parata which was taken very seriously both by the knights and the people in general as it was of special significance in the history of this festival.
It was customary for some peasants and later companies of young dancers to gather early under the balcony of the Grandmaster's Palace in Valletta and wait eagerly until they received formal permission from him to hold the Carnival.
The most recently appointed Knight Grand Cross would obtain the necessary permission and a proclamation giving the go-ahead to Carnival was immediately read from the Palace balcony.
This was the sign for the general merriment to start, and the companies dressed as Christians and Turks performed a mock fight recalling the Great Siege of 1565.
Meanwhile, a stone would be hung from the Castellania, or Palace of Justice (now the Ministry of Health, in Merchants Street), as a sign that justice was "suspended" for the three days of Carnival.
Kukkanja (Cockaigne):
Grand Master Marc'Antonio Zondadari introduced the game of "Kukkanja" ("Cockaigne or Cockayne" is a land of plenty in medieval myth, an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease where physical comforts and pleasures are always immediately at hand and where the harshness of medieval peasant life does not exist) to carnival in 1721.
On a given signal, the crowd assembled in Palace Square converged on a collection of hams, sausages and live animals hidden beneath leafy branches outside the guard house. The provisions became the property of those who, having seized them, were able to carry them off.
During the British occupation:
Carnival parades during the British period, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries, were noted for their biting satirical themes, and many of the intricate floats were designed to poke fun at political figures and unpopular government decisions, however, political satire was essentially banned as a result of a law passed in 1936.
During the Carnival of 1823, about 110 children died in a human crush after attending catechism at the Convent of the Minori Osservanti on the last day of carnival.
Since 1926 Carnival in Malta started to be centred in the capital city of Valletta, and saw the decline in other cities and villages, with the major reasons being the regulations set by the Carnival Committee and the participation prizes awarded by it.
Present Day:
The largest of the carnival celebrations mainly take place in and around the capital city Valletta and Floriana, however there are several "spontaneous" carnivals in more remote villages of Malta and Gozo.
The Nadur Carnival is notable for its darker and more risqué themes including cross-dressing, ghost costumes, political figures and revellers dressed up as scantily clad clergyfolk.
The Għaxaq spontaneous carnival is an original carnival organised by the inhabitants of this locality, where people wear masks and all the old-fashioned clothes that they can find in their wardrobe.
Food consumed during carnival includes perlini (multi-coloured, sugar-coated almonds) and the prinjolata, which is a towering assembly of sponge cake, biscuits, almonds and citrus fruits, topped with cream and pine nuts.
The Coins:
Both the 2.50-euro base metal 2024 Karnival ta’ Malta and 10-euro silver Prooflike coins have been minted and designed by the Royal Dutch Mint at their facilities in Houten, Netherlands, on behalf of the Central Bank of Malta.
On the Reverse of both denominations, an animated female figure looks up, her arms spread out as if to welcome the festivities of carnival.
She is also wearing a mask as is the tradition during the Malta carnival. The background consists of a mandala pattern which is specially detailed in vivid rainbow colours and is included on the silver examples. Below the primary design is the stylised text "2.5 or 10 EURO KARNIVAL TA’ MALTA".
The Obverse of both denominations depicts the standard crest or logo of the Central Bank of Malta along with the year of release, "2024", shown below.
The Coins have been issued in two variants:
i) The Cupro-nickel Variant:
Country: Republic of Malta; Date/Year of issue: 11.01.2024; Coin Theme: "KARNIVAL TA’ MALTA"; Denomination: 2.50 Euro; Metal Composition: Cupro-nickel (CuNi); Weight: 15.50 grams; Diameter/Size: 33.00 mm; Coin Quality: Brilliant Uncirculated (BU); Minted By & Designed By: The Royal Dutch Mint at their facilities in Houten, Netherlands, on behalf of the Central Bank of Malta; Mintage: 5,000 pieces.
i)The Silver Variant:
Country: Republic of Malta; Date/Year of issue: 11.01.2024; Coin Theme: ""KARNIVAL TA’ MALTA""; Denomination: 10 Euro; Metal Composition: .925 Fineness Silver (Ag); Weight: 28.2 grams; Diameter/Size: 38.60 mm; Coin Quality: Prooflike with colour; Minted By: The Royal Dutch Mint at their facilities in Houten, Netherlands, on behalf of the Central Bank of Malta; Mintage: 1.000 pieces.
- The 2.50-Euro Base metal coins are encased in a sealed coin-card format decorated with vivid colour designs and specification information.
- The 10-Euro Prooflike Silver Coins are encapsulated and presented in a custom case accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity (COA).
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