Maltese Society, Culture, Traditions and National Symbols
This domain tests language, religion, the calendar of feasts and national days, and the symbols you must be able to identify without a prompt.
Language and religion
Maltese and English are both official. Maltese is a Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet with the letters ċ, ġ, ħ, ż and the digraphs għ and ie, and it borrows heavily from Sicilian, Italian and English. The Constitution names Roman Catholicism as the religion of Malta; most of the population is Catholic, and the Church runs schools and welfare services alongside the state.
Traditions
Village festas honour a patron saint with band clubs, fireworks and processions. Holy Week and Carnival are national fixtures, and Mnarja on 29 June is the traditional agricultural feast. Għana is Maltese folk singing; lace, filigree and glass are signature crafts. Food carries identity: pastizzi, ħobż biż-żejt, ftira, stuffat tal-fenek and ġbejna.
National symbols
The flag is white and red with the George Cross in the upper hoist. The emblem shows the Maltese cross with olive and palm branches and the motto Virtute et Constantia. The anthem L-Innu Malti has words by Dun Karm Psaila and music by Robert Samut. The national flower is the Widnet il-Baħar, the bird the Merill (blue rock thrush), the tree the Għargħar.
Worked example
"Which day marks the 1979 withdrawal of British forces?" Not Independence Day (21 September) but Freedom Day, 31 March. The law recognises five national days: Freedom Day, Sette Giugno (7 June), Victory Day (8 September), Independence Day and Republic Day (13 December).
Traps
Mixing up Independence (1964) and Republic Day (1974); thinking the George Cross commemorates 1565 rather than the Second World War; naming the poet as the anthem's composer.