Traditional Maltese proverbs reveal cultural importance of childbearing and fertility: "''iż-żwieġ mingħajr tarbija ma fihx tgawdija''" (a childless marriage cannot be a happy one). This is a belief that Malta shares with many other Mediterranean cultures. In Maltese folktales the local variant of the classic closing formula, "and they all lived happily ever after" is "''u għammru u tgħammru, u spiċċat''" (and they lived together, and they had children together, and the tale is finished).