Maltese carnival:

The carnival of the Maltese islands takes place during the week of Ash Wednesday.

It has been celebrated since the 15^th century but began to show in the 1535, five years after the arrival of St John. It started in the village called Birgu were knights played games and showed their talents in tournaments and pageants. The Grand  master complained because that they were exaggerating their fun, after this he made it clear that he is not going to tolerate it  so he cut off and changed some activities which were tournaments and military exercise for the war. In 1560 he allowed the wearing of masks in the streets and let them to celebrate on boats and decorate the ships.

In 1639 Grand master Giovanni Paolo prohibited woman to take part in any events and cannot wear masks.  Wearing a costume devil was prohibited because you are representing the devil. Some of the man even dressed as Jesuit (a community of the church) to make fun of him because of the rules he made .  The community demanded to Lascaris to expel Jesuit from Malta and Lascaris did. By this there were a lot of arguments and children were trampled to death.

How carnival works today:

Nowadays the carnival is held in Valletta and it is quite large. In Nadur the carnival is darker and more showing of the body and dressing of ghosts, political and a lot of characters. In Ghaxaq it has more old fashioned costumes.

The traditions:

The parata dance is a re- enactment of the 1565, the victory of the knights over the Torks.

There sweets which are called perlini

There prinjolota which a cake made in a pyramid rounded shape which cherries and peanuts on top.

Bibliography: 

Maltese Carnival - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013. Maltese Carnival - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_Carnival. [Accessed 20 May 2013].