As from this year FONDAZZJONI WIRT ARTNA will be restoring the tradition of marking SAINT BARBARA'S DAY on the 4th of December with the firing of a full-gun salute from the Saluting Battery, Valletta as was annually done until 1939. With Saint Barbara being the patron saint of artillerymen and engineers it was accorded two gun salutes one to be fired on the 3rd the eve of the feast and another one on the feast day which falls on the 4th. The feast of Saint Barbara is one of several Roman Catholic feasts that were marked in that way first by the Hospitaller Order of St. John and later by the Royal Artillery, the Royal Malta Fencible Artillery and the Royal Malta Artillery in Malta. The firing of gun salutes on feast days was taken so seriously by the Maltese that it was included in the Declaration of Rights presented by the Maltese deputies to King George III when he was asked to place Malta and the Maltese under his protection in 1802. Consequently, these religious gun salutes went on being fired until 1939 when they were permanently interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War not to be restored again. With the restoration of peace that role was assumed by the various town and village band clubs as they still do today.
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