Traffic will be horrendous. The Police will be closing off the part of Kulim Road in front of the church possibly starting from today. Guess I'll have to take a longer route to get home today. And amidst all this traffic congestion, I really don't feel like going out to the island on Sunday to celebrate George Town's world heritage listing although I should. The roads here and on the island will be a big mess.
Anyway, back to the St Anne's festival. The old church building, though small, is a very striking sight, especially when you view it face on from across the road. As you can see from the sign on the gate, that's the schedule for the celebrations.
I took this photo earlier on Monday or Tuesday morning. The grounds was still empty during the day. No crowd yet because all the worship would take place in the evenings. But this morning when I passed by at 6am, I noticed two packed buses turning into the compound. This is a Catholic church so I suppose other Christian denominations do not celebrate this festival. However, you do meet the occasional non-Christians, except the Muslims, among the crowd. It's a peculiarity that non-Christians also come to the St Anne's church at this time of the year.
A few of the devotees in prayers on Wednesday night. The candles can be as long as three to four feet. Some of the people take comfort in the length of their candles. The longer, the better, I suppose.
Anyway, when they were done with the prayers, they'd surrender their candles to the church volunteers who then doused the flames. I was curious. What would become of all the candles collected? What did the volunteers do with them?
This was the scene behind the church building. The volunteers here were busily stripping the candles from the bamboo sticks. Recycling the candle wax.
The used candles were stuffed into these bags and there were easily 20 bags or more behind the building. Someone would re-melt them and make new candles which are then re-sold as new to other devotees. I suppose the money would add to the church's coffers and it's a way to collect donations to the church. But I would have wished that the volunteers wouldn't do it so openly. The faithful wouldn't mind but to others, they may think differently.
Beside the church building, people were climbing the steps to the top of the hill. Along the way, they were allowed to light candles. Previously, the candles were simply placed anywhere along the steps and it proved to be a hazard because wax is slippery. So the church now allowed candles to be lit at certain designated stands only. Volunteers would remove the lit candles from the stands every few minutes because they needed to clear the space for even more candles. But again, the used candles then ended up in the bags behind the church. Mmm...would you be comfortable knowing that the candle you hold in your hand had been used previously by other people?
Anyway, after about a five-minute climb, you would reach the top of the hill. The image of St Anne is at the highest point on the hill. There's also a life-sized image of the cruxified Christ on display.
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