BIRTH CUSTOMS
AND
SAINT PROTECTORS

Moreover, an easy delivery was predicted if the parents had married on one of the days known as stilla (star), on which rain is expected to fall rather heavily. There are six such days, three of which are St Ursula's Day (Oct.21), St Catherine's Day (Nov.23) and St Lucy's Day (Dec. 13).

St Ludgarda's help and protection are especially invoked during childbirth. One invocation runs as follows: "St Ludgarda, grant us an easy delivery." Others call on St Blaise, a fourth-century bishop and physician, who also protects children from throat diseases, to ease the throes of childbirth: "St Blaise, make the opening large and the head small." St Raymond is another popular saint whose cult is associated with children. The invocation used runs as follows: "St Raymond, bring me the child from the depths."

There is also a special devotion to St Spiridione, patron saint of Corfu, whose picture, covered with silver, is venerated in the Greek church in Archbishop Street, Valletta.

Tal-Hlas Sanctuary, on the outskirts of Qormi, contains various ex votos offered in thanksgiving for an easy delivery and the birth of a normal infant.

Such votive offerings, which may include babies dresses, are also found at Ta Pinu and Qala Sanctuaries in Gozo and at Tal-Herba (B'kara). Tal-Grazzja (Zabbar) and Mellieha Sanctuaries in Malta.

There were other religious practices connected with childbirth. At Birgu, where there was a great devotion to St Calogero, whose statue was brought over from Sciacca, in Sicily, in 1606, parturient women had great faith in the efficacy of the saints staff, which they held in their hands during childbirth. Having safely delivered their child, they adorned the staff with a silk ribbon.

At Naxxar, pregnant women used to drink water containing some powder obtained from the bones of St Victor, venerated in that village from the 18th century onward as a protective saint of pregnant women, to ensure a smooth delivery. At Zejtun, a ring that had been blessed on the feast of St Peter Martyr (April 29), in a church dedicated to this saint, was worn by the parturient women to avert an abnormal labour. Up to a few years ago Birgu mothers used to pay the sexton to toll a church bell, known as "the bell of thanksgiving", to thank the Almighty for a safe delivery.

Some folk beliefs centre on ones date of birth. Thus, a man born on St Mary's Day in mid-August (feast of the Assumption on August 15), was likely to become a successful jockey and make a name for himself in horse-racing circles.

In the past, December 24 was considered a most inauspicious day for birth. According to a superstitious belief which lingered on among the Maltese up to the end of the 19th century, persons who were born on Christmas Eve were dommed to be transformed once a year, on this day, while they were asleep, into a ghost called Gawgaw. In this form they wandered about frightening people with their groaning.

Towards dawn they returned home exhausted. By the time they woke up in the morning they had resumed their human form, quite unaware of their nocturnal peregrinations. The remedy against this transformation consisted in inducing the sufferer to sit up all night and to count the holes ofa sieve from eleven oclock at night to the following Christmas morning.