16 - 22 December 1999

Maltese Christmas and Millennium celebrations on the Internet

by David Kelleher

Maltese celebrations for Christmas and the New Millennium will be extended to the Internet to the delight of the thousands of Maltese people around the world who cannot join in the festivities.

MaltaMedia has launched a website that will host, among other things, the broadcast of the Midnight Mass and traditional Maltese ghana (folk singing) for Christmas, a documentary about Maltese history in the second Millennium, and pictures of the Millennium celebrations in Gozo.

MaltaMedia is an audio-visual production house specialising in multimedia and the Internet platform. This millennial special feature enhances its portfolio which already possesses the popular MaltaMedia Daily Online News service.

After last year's successful webcast of the Midnight Mass from the Ta' Pinu Basilica on the Internet, this year MaltaMedia will relay two Holy Christmas celebrations, which are Midnight Mass from the Cittadella Cathedral in Victoria, Gozo and the Christmas Day High Mass from St John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta. These webcasts will be presented in collaboration with Radio RTK 103 FM and Video On Line (Malta), one of Malta's premier Internet Service Providers.

Another interesting webcast is a special Christmas edition of Tisqifa ghall-ghana taghna, the series of traditional Maltese folk-singing programmes produced by the University Radio. Another production by the same radio station, the radio-play entitled Is-soru li ma emmnitx, is also being made available on-line for the occasion.

The other section of the website devoted to the Millennium celebrations will relay scene of the Millennium celebrations in Gozo. Maltese personalities have been invited to give their greetings on the occasion. A special audio documentary accounts for Malta's chequered history in the millennium that shaped Malta as we know it today, and will be made available as a webcast on demand in collaboration with Video On Line.

The MaltaMedia Millennium Website is available at http://maltamedia.com.