MaltaMedia.com

Ġorġ Mifsud Chircop (1951-2007)

As with honey ring-cakes, the belief in rules or Calends (in Maltese, “l-irwiegel’’ or “l-Ghewejjed”) – the broken plural of “regola” and “ghada” – is another ancient custom which has seen only negligible change throughout the years. However, there have been developments since this superstition is still alive. Farmers are the people mostly concerned with this series of twelve days; and with reason, since they come in continuous contact with the weather which influences their crops.

In Malta rules start on December 13th and continue until the 24th (Christmas Eve). This superstition is found throughout Europe. There are many countries where the Rules start on the 14th, 21st, 25th, 26th, the 31st December or 1st January. Calends fall on the same days as ours in Portugal, France, some Italian provinces such as Calabria, the island of Sicily and Croatia.

So far, little scientific research has been done on Rules in Maltese folklore. In my opinion, Fr. Manwel Magri, who wrote about this custom more than eighty years ago in X’Jghid il-Malti is not as detailed as one would wish, although Magri has done well for a start. Yet, there is still much to be done about this.

Throughout our research among the Maltese, I was fortunate enough to come in contact with various informant collaborators, including Karmnu Grima from ir-Rahal Gdid. He is fifty-three years old, and since he is not illiterate, I obtained from him in writing all he knows about Rules. Moreover, he gave me a list of observations he made of the Rules of the year l970. However, Mr. Grima could not obtain all the information since it is almost impossible for an employee to keep noting all the changes of the weather. Yet, the fact still holds that his report is the first of its kind in Maltese folklore.

Grima wrote to me: “Our ancestors used to say that the last days, twelve before Christmas, correspond exactly to the twelve months of the following year; that is, the 13th would be January, the 14th, February, and so on till the 24th which would be December. The day starts at midnight and lasts through the next 24 hours till the following midnight. Therefore 24 should be divided by 30 days or 31 depend ing on the month to which it corresponds. In order to be exact, the farmer is supposed to follow the weather changes scrupulously throughout the day - especially slight variations of the wind, the increase or decrease of its force, rainfall, sunshine and cloudiness. I did not go into such detail, as you may have noticed from the above list. More or less, I work it out by the month. I may safely say that this list has been a good forecast for the year 1971.’’

In this video produced by MaltaMedia.com and Favourite Channel TV, Peter Bezzina explains the tradition, as as some may call it, a superstition of L-Irwiegel or Ghewejjed.