Carnival in Valletta, Malta

On our anniversary trip to Malta, we had a most pleasant surprise - it was Carnival.  Malta has a very strong Roman Catholic presence and the country was celebrating Carnival before Lent started.  We were in the town of Valletta when we came across the "Bands and Dancers Parade."  We have never attended a carnival before but it was fun to see.  Here are some of the pictures - I'm not going to comment on all of them because they pretty much speak for themselves.  We also got to watch the dance competition and saw the floats.  

 I was amazed at how ornate the costumes were.

 The hard part about watching this parade was the parents -

they followed their children down the street

(which I don't blame them - I would too)

but it made it kind of hard to see the kids!

 Cute little guy!  Some of the participants were so young, perhaps 3 years old.

 We tried to get a good picture of this guy in the middle of the photo -

he was on springs/stilts and would jump really high in the air.

We weren't quick enough to get the picture.

 This was at the dance competition.

I felt sorry for this group because they were so small and

also their costumes were plain compared to the other competitors.

 But this little girl made it all worthwhile.

She was having the time of her life.

 This little girl was not interested in the loud music 

and colorful costumes.

She was picking up confetti!

 These were little kids, probably 3 or 4 years old.

 This poor girl looks like she has had a long day.

 Here are some of the floats for the parade.

We didn't wait around for the parade to start -

it had been a long day!

 They are so colorful and ornate.

 This was the cutest thing we saw all day.  We were leaving and coming towards us

was Spiderman and Superman, holding hands.  We had already put our camera up,

but I still think these are cute photos.

Here are a few things we noticed about the Maltese people.  They seemed to be very family oriented.  This was a carnival made up of families.  Nothing like what I think it is like in New Orleans.  Of course we didn't stay for the night life but the entire crowd was made up of families.  The children were so well behaved.  It had to be a long day for them, because it was for us and we didn't have to wear costumes and march and dance.  Having said that, we hardly saw a child throwing a fit or crying.  We were amazed, and impressed.  We mentioned this to our taxi driver on our way to the airport to fly home.  He kinda snorted and said, "They're used to it.  We celebrate everything."  Still impressive!  The Maltese are a very friendly, happy people!