In this essay I’m going to talk about old traditions
and tools used in the 19th century that some are still practiced
till today or sadly disappeared from our culture.
Luzzu
The Maltese Luzzu always played a big part of our
tradition and heritage especially for the Maltese fisherman. This unique boat
is thought to have originated from a time when the Phoenicians had control over
Malta because of their boats similar design and structure to the Luzzu. We can
see this in the image below where a Phoenicians boat usually ended with
double-sided hull just like a Luzzu ‘both ends are similar triangular ends’.
Some of the Phoenicians boats also have a pair of eyes at one end of their boats.
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| Figure 1 (Oocities.org, 2016) Phoenician ship |
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| Figure 2 (Original Source) Taken at Mellieha Luzzus 16/1/16 |
One of the most
interesting things about the Luzzu are the pair of eyes on the front of the
boat. In the elder days these eyes believed that they represent and offered
protection against evil spirits and safe travels while at sea to the fisherman.
These eyes originated from the Egyptian beliefs called the Eye of Osiris or the
Eye of Horus.
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| Figure 3 (original source) Taken at Mellieha Luzzu eye 16/1/16 |
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| Figure 4 (Landofpyramids.org, 2016) Eye of Osiris |
The Phoenicians depended a lot on travels overseas and
therefore they had some of the best structural designs of that time. Fisherman
still use it because of its stability and reliability. Important not to mix
with the Kajjik which is like a smaller version of the Luzzu but it doesn’t
have a double-ended hull.
The traditional bright colours of the Luzzu are green,
blue, red and white or yellow, while the eyes are usually different from a boat
to another followed by the design of the eyes which give out each Luzzu a
unique character.
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| Figure 5 (Original source) Taken at Spinola Bay Luzzu restoration 14/1/16 |
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| Figure 6 ( Original source) Taken at Spinola Bay Luzzu eye 14/1/16 |
Today apart from fishing the Luzzu is being used as a
tourist attraction where people from all over the world are coming to see for
them self’s and go aboard on one of these boats. Alto the Luzzu is very old it
is still very famous till this day. Here are some examples on how this boat is
influencing artists and designers.
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| Figure 7 (Original source) Taken at Spinola Bay Luzzu warps (tberfil) 14/1/16 |
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| Figure 8 (Ltd, 2016) Luzzu design on car |
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| Figure 9 (Luzzu, 2016) Goose egg Luzzu design |
The Maltese Cart (Karrettun)
The Maltese cart was a very old method of
transportation to carry large objects, goods and large stones for building
walls and old houses.
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| Figure 10 (Original source) Model of a Maltese cart (Karrettun) |
A cart was all handmade and it took time
and good craftsmanship to build one. It was made from metal and strong hard
wood such as beech (fagu) and ash (fraxxnu) so the whole cart was very heavy.
It had two wooden wheels at the back, two long horizontal strips. Between them
depending on the size of the cart were connected vertical strips and at the far
end there were two more strips crossing each other which were at a higher level
than the vertical strips so the objects on them would not roll over when they
would be on a down wards position.
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| Figure 11 (Original source) Hub and strips of Wheel |
The wheel was usually made from six too five strips
that were connected to a circular wooden frame from one side and a hub (buttun)
in the centre. Finally they would heat up a piece of metal strip and put it
around the wooden circular frame and because they always made the metal smaller than
the frame, when the metal cools down it would shrink back in size and tighten
up with the frame and this helped to make the hole wheel stronger.
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| Figure 12 (Original source) Hub |
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| Figure 13 (Original source) Hub |
The size of the cart depended on what it was going to
be used for. So if to carry large stones and rocks for buildings it would had
to be a big and strong cart pulled by a strong horse or a mule (baghal).
For smaller carts usually used to carry small amounts of goods were pulled by
Donkeys. Some of these small carts were painted blue, green or orange and were
decorated with warps (tberfil) design as they were used to sell goods back then
in the streets.
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| Figure 14 (Original source) Wheels |
Sadly after cars and other vehicles for transporting
things come to Malta everybody started stopping using these unique Maltese
carts and they soon disappeared.
References:
Images:
Landofpyramids.org, 2016. The Eye of Horus ***. [online] Available at: <http://www.landofpyramids.org/eye-of-horus.htm> [Accessed 18 Jan. 2016].
Ltd, A., 2016. Luzzu car. [online] Times of Malta. Available at: <http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20151002/local/luzzu-car.586625> [Accessed 18 Jan. 2016].
Luzzu, M., 2016. Maltese Egg Art Luzzu |. [online] Original Malta. Available at: <http://originalmalta.com/product/maltese-egg-art-luzzu/> [Accessed 18 Jan. 2016].
Oocities.org, 2016. Phoenician Ships. [online] Available at: <http://www.oocities.org/CapitolHill/Parliament/2587/ships.html> [Accessed 18 Jan. 2016].
Information:
Airmalta.com, 2016. Maltese Luzzu: A tradition surrounded by superstition. [online] Available at: <https://www.airmalta.com/destinations/malta/blog/detail/maltese-luzzu> [Accessed 18 Jan. 2016].
Lanfranco, G., 2004. Hajjitna fl-imghoddi. Rabat: Wise Owl Publications.
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