Public holidays

Fourteen public holidays puts Malta near the top of the European table, and nine of them are religious feasts rather than civic anniversaries, which tells you most of what you need to know about how the calendar here was built. Five are national holidays, marking points in the island's political history; the other nine are public holidays. Nothing practical turns on the distinction. All fourteen close the banks.

Only one of them moves. Good Friday is tied to Easter, which is set by the moon rather than the calendar, so it wanders between late March and late April. The rest sit on the same date every year.

What a holiday actually closes

Banks, post offices, government offices and pharmacies on rota: closed, every time, with no exceptions worth planning around. If you need cash or a prescription, do it the day before.

Supermarkets and village shops: it depends, and it depends on which holiday. On a minor one a good number will open for the morning. On Christmas Day, New Year's Day or 15 August, assume nothing is open and shop ahead. The large supermarkets near Victoria are the most likely to keep some hours; a village grocer is the least.

Restaurants: mostly open, and on the summer holidays busier than a normal day rather than quieter, because the whole island is eating out. Book. On Good Friday the few that open serve no meat, and there is no music anywhere, which is not a restriction so much as the character of the day.

Museums and Heritage Malta sites: closed on 1 January, Good Friday and 25 December, and open on most of the rest. Check the specific site before travelling for it, because the Gozo sites have their own seasonal hours on top of the holiday ones.

The ferry on a holiday

The Gozo Channel ferry runs every day of the year, Christmas Day included. What changes is the frequency and the queue. On the big summer holidays, and above all around 15 August, the line of cars at Ċirkewwa can mean two or three sailings' wait, and the crossing itself is twenty-five minutes of that journey.

If you are travelling on 15 August, at Easter, or over Christmas and New Year, go very early or very late and leave the middle of the day alone. The fast passenger ferries from Valletta and Sliema are an alternative if you are on foot, and they are far less affected.