FEAST OF OUR LADY OF CONSOLATION

24/10/2016 – 30/10/2016

The Feast of Our Lady of Consolation (also known as Our Lady of the Girdle) is celebrated in the southern town of Gudja in Malta on the last Sunday of October.

This event brings to an end the long calendar of village festas that take place throughout Summer and beyond all over Malta and Gozo.

In the early 1700s, members of the Augustinian Order spread devotion to Our Lady of Consolation across the islands of Malta. A Brotherhood was established in the Maltese village of Gudja in 1727 and an altar to the ‘Madonna taċ-Ċintura’ erected there in St. Mary’s Parish Church. At first the Brotherhood celebrated the Madonna’s festa on the traditional day in late August or early September. In the 1800s, the Brotherhood became allied to the local Philharmonic Society, and nowadays the Band Club of St. Mary’s Assumption leads the spectacular festa culminating on the last Sunday of October, with pyrotechnic displays by Our Lady of Consolation Fireworks Factory.

For information http://www.mariassuntagudja.com/