Hijacked feast

Tonio Privitelli in Belgium, who also blogs here, takes a critical historical look at how the Maltese commemorate their Independence:

..Worse than this motley mix of national holidays, the Nationalists committed the sin of hijacking this historical event, turning it into a "Nationalist" feast, rather than a national holiday, by insisting on celebrating the day with a partisan political event, even after it had been officially reinstated as a national holiday. It was OK to do this under the Labour regime, which had tried to write this great event off Malta's history books. But to have the Partit Nazzjonalista, and not the Maltese state, organise the Indipendenza Fest or whatever silly name they choose to call it nowadays, 21 years after its official recognition, is simply asking for the "other" side to ignore the historical implications of the day.

There we go again. Us and the "others". Our national holiday(s), and theirs. Two tribes. It would be funny, if it weren't so tragic. You can immediately tell which political grounding a Maltese person has just by asking them what is the Maltese national holiday. If they lean towards Labour they'll say it's Republic Day. If they are keen Nationalists, they'll tell you it's l-Indipendenza. If they're neither Labour nor keen Nationalists, they won't mention Independence, for fear of appearing partisan. A historical landmark, the day when we Maltese people should celebrate the fact of our nationhood, for reasons of silly and unnecessary pique hijacked by political parties and turned into a matter of national controversy...