Fireworks Connecting Japan and Malta: Reflections on the Malta International Fireworks Festival
2026/4/27
On the evening of the 25th April, the Embassy members watched the beautiful fireworks lighting up the sky over Valletta, and was reminded of the nostalgic scenery of hometown, some 10,000 kilometres away. Yet the sight of fireworks blooming in the night sky as though embracing St John’s Co-Cathedral was a spectacle unique to Malta, and we were deeply moved by it.
In Japan, too, fireworks have been cherished as a summer pleasure since the Edo period (1603–1868). In the Japanese sensibility, their charm lies above all in their transience. We find profound beauty in the way they blossom like great flowers in the night sky, only to disappear the very next moment. This feeling resonates closely with our love of cherry blossoms, which bloom in spring and soon scatter.
The notion of perceiving eternity within a single fleeting moment, and of focusing one’s whole heart on that moment, is expressed in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony by the phrase ichi-go ichi-e — “a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.”
In Japan, too, fireworks have been cherished as a summer pleasure since the Edo period (1603–1868). In the Japanese sensibility, their charm lies above all in their transience. We find profound beauty in the way they blossom like great flowers in the night sky, only to disappear the very next moment. This feeling resonates closely with our love of cherry blossoms, which bloom in spring and soon scatter.
The notion of perceiving eternity within a single fleeting moment, and of focusing one’s whole heart on that moment, is expressed in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony by the phrase ichi-go ichi-e — “a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.”