St. Anne Church, Bukit Mertajam

On 26th July 2008, troggers attended a religious event in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, St Anne Feast.

What is St. Anne feast?

Feast. St. Anne  feast is an annual event, which will be held at the end of July. Catholics and also non believers from all over Malaysia  and even Thailand would come here every year for the feast.  For those who  doesn't know who is St. Anne. She  is the mother of St Mary. The picture below shows Holy Grandmother St. Anne and her daughter St. Mary.  

Above: the old St. Anne Church 

"The church started in 1846. The main church was opened in 1888. It is now called the St. Anne's Shrine. It is the main church for the Feast Of St. Anne every year. In 1958, the parish opened another church. These church was called 'new church' for 48 years. It is now a centre. On 2002, the new church was opened. This church could fit 1,200 people. Work on the new St. Anne's Church started on 2000 and was completed on 2002. It was opened by the then Apostlic Delegate To Malaysia. Not only a new St. Anne's Church was constructed, the Dataran St. Anne was installed in front of the church. Domus St. Anne was also installed to accommodate pilgrims who intend to stay over. A parish office, parish community centre and canteen were also installed. On 2006, the church installed the 'Statues Of Passion'. These statues cost RM 600,000 all together. It shows the station of the cross. Currently, the parish priest for the church is Msgr. Stephen Liew." cited from wikipedia

The new Church

one of the costly 'Statues Of Passion' 

the road was closed for the ceremony. but i think it was more like a pasar malam..hehe

People from all over Malaysia and even Thailand came here for the feast. of course not everyone there was believer. Perhaps some are believers but not official believers

Reaching the top: Just beside the old church, there is a staircase to places-i-dunno-what-they- call-them, i think it is called Grotto. 

the first Grotto 

Grotto at the top..

People climbed up the stairs to pray to Holy Grandmother St. Anne. See the sign on the right hand corner.. no candles. a fire broke out here before. since then no candles are allowed but the 2 places where there are people who supervise the places

the hill was crowded  with people, queuing along the staircase

At the top:

A group of people in a big circle, singing song and pray.. where? just right in front of the cross

St. Anne's Water

St. Anne Church at night. 

the furthest i could zoom with a tripod. that's the altar. The open air mass at night. thousands of people attented the mass and the organising committee deserved a big round of applause for the event. everything during the mass was so organized.

No kidding.. crowded

for more information about the church, visit the website here or you can wikipedia it

there you can obtain more information about St Anne Church including the history of the church and also the events throughout the year.