Carnival vignettes of the 1920s

Carnival provides an opportunity for revellers to assume a new personality, albeit for a day or two; a chance to jest, play the fool or poke fun. The options and opportunities for children are myriad and exciting, more so today than ever before with electronic media fuelling the imagination.

As Vicki Ann Cremona has demonstrated in her recent authoritative publication, Carnival and Power: Play and Politics in a Crown Colony, carnival celebrations in Malta have, from time immemorial, been loaded with symbolism and intrigue – often poking fun at figures of authority. Historically there has also been a more innocent component of these festivities: that dedicated to the entertainment of children.
As today’s revellers apply the finishing touches to their fantasy outfits this article takes a look at the carnival costumes worn by the siblings of one Maltese family in the 1920s.
The parents responsible for these carnival indulgences came from the professional strata of Maltese society: Prof. Peter Xuereb, MD, and his wife Mary née Debono. Their children in order of their birth were Laura (1921), George (1922), Charles (1923) and Mary Josephine (1924); as these dates demonstrate, the...