How busy I have been the last month or so. I have been struggling to make time for Hive and my binge-watching The Real Housewives. But it is all good, busy is good.
More of all that in time, today though, I want to park some memories on our immutable chain. I recently went for a family holiday to Penang and on the way back stopped over at St Anne's Church, Bukit Mertajam which is about half an hour away from the island. Visiting the church was Mum's thing and I just wanted to drop in just because. Mum wasn't a religious person, but as far back as my memory takes me (4-years-old), she'd drag whomever she could and we'd make that trip, by train or car, across the country to attend the festival.
St Anne's Feast is celebrated on the 26th July for 9 days. The church was built in 1846 and thousands come to celebrate Jesus' grandmother, Mary's mother.
The church grounds surrounding the church was/is massive, probably the size of 6 football fields.. Over the years, a new church was built on the grounds to accommodate the masses that attend the feast - over 100,000.
As a kid (when it was just the white church and the big huge field), we'd just park ourselves (as in our bodies) on the grounds as many others did. Just find a spot, lay out our mat and done. Of course, we'd never leave our stuff unattended. To shower, we'd ask the kindness of the residents around the area, and back then, you can find someone who'd accommodate us a shower by their well. Boy, was the water cold!
Over the years, the grounds have been upgraded and "beautified." From stairs, to railings for support, benches to rest and pray, just to name a few.
Before the stairs, it used to be a hiker's trail like climb, and the elderly suffered especially during the procession. With hundreds on the path, it can be quite daunting even for the young ones as some of the step-ups were knee-high.
Right around the trail, are the stations of the cross.
It could have been a nice climb for a fitter person, but I huffed and I puffed after the first 20 steps and barely made it to the top.
And this is the destination, where St Anne'a apparation appeared and devotess and believers have come in throngs. And with restrictions lifted, I am sure, this year will be quite grand. As the lit candles indicate,some have come by to say hello-hi to St Anne as did I.
I have not seen it so green, I suppose with the lockdowns and hardly anyone coming by, everything has overgrown. So no surprise the mosquitoes came out in droves, probably thinking "oooooh, a buffet!" They were attacking and so I didn't stay long to take more pictures and ran for it.
The stairs on the other side of the trail. So you can go up one side and come down the other or vice versa.
There are spaces for you to pray and light your candle. I remember Mum used to buy candles as close to our heights as possible so she could pray for St Anne to watch over her family. Back then, we'd have to stay to these candles because young kids would wait for the right time to swipe as many as they could to melt and mould them back into new candles to sell.
I remember this one time when my daughter was not even 2 years old, we had made that trip and on the way, I had to make her milk. So we pulled over, I went to the boot, mixed the milk and fed her some. After which, instead of going to sleep as she normally did, she started jumping in the car and there was no calming her down for a good half hour, before exhausted, she dozed off. Only later did I find out, dad had mixed some gin with water in the water bottle for him to drink and unknowinlgy I had used that to mix the milk. Thank goodness, it was only a little to add to the hot water I used🤦♀
There are more of these on the grounds, but we had to leave and I didn't get a chance to take pictures of them all.
But before I wrap it, a couple more stories are attached to this place. When my brother and I were about 9 and 12, we joined the people who had made a vow to beg for money, which they then would drop into the donation boxes. We stood in the line, along the road and up the stairs to the old church. We begged with them and then dropped half the coins in our pockets and the other half into the donation box. 😬
And one last story to share, we took Mum for the feast on her last year even though she was too weak to climb the stairs to the grotto. She sat on the bottom stairs and waited while I made a quick dash up. On the way back, she repeated several times, "Sheela, this year we must go to St Anne's feast ok?". The first time I told her, we were just at the church and were on our way back. After that, I just agreed with her and left it at that as she had dementia by then and it was useless to try and jog her memory.
Oh oh, one last one. After my daughter, I was trying very hard to get pregnant again in the hopes of having a pair. For months (over a year) we tried but it wasn't happening. Three days back from St Anne's feast that year, I found out I was pregnant and it was the boy as I had prayed for. Maybe a coincidence I don't know...
This place will always be special because of Mum first and foremost and somehow being there just brought back so many memories and feelings.
all images are mine
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
That looks stunningly restful. Wonderful respite from the ordinary:) ❤️💕🤗
It was very calm and peaceful
Only thing had to rush through the visit
How have you been?
I haven’t seen much of you. I’m as fine as can be expected. I miss you❤️💕🤗
Playing hard first with getaways back to back
And suddenly I have work that came my way
And I said yes
So now trying to work around all of this
Will sure be around more here on :D
Thank you for missing me <33
You received 5 LADY(LOH) token for posting in Ladies of Hive!
We believe that you should be rewarded for the time and effort spent in creating articles. The goal is to encourage token holders to accumulate and hold LOH tokens over a long period of time.
How beautiful!
I love the tradition of contemplating the Stations of the Cross.
I would love to visit that place... and your mom can drag me any times!
Take care, @karepediem!!!
Thanks for sharing that beautiful place.
Mum's not around anymore, but I will be very happy to drag you anywhere you wanna go :D
Sounds like a very special place @kaerpediem 😊 beautiful surroundings too.
Thanks for sharing, also the little stories at the end. 🥰
It really is
There's a sort of calm especially when you go on days where there's hardly anyone around ;D
Beautiful.... 😊 I like those days, when nobody is around.
hi miss Sheela!
hehehe I've also been pretty absent so it's nice to see you returning for a post when I'm here to read!!!
oh my gosh the stories you told along with these memories!!! I was cracking up at the gin story and the beggars!!! lolololol and the mosquitoes! hahahaha
but what a beautiful place!
I love that it's green and a bit overgrown again....it's a sign of the natural wild spirit is us all trying to come back to life again!
love you dearly!!!
Hello Miss Leah <333333
I thought I'd leave the stories here lest I forget hehe
It is a beautiful place - there's something magical, especially on a quiet day like this
During the feast, it is crazy though
Love you right back <3333333
Congratulations @kaerpediem! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 1300 posts.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
Thank you for sharing this amazing post on HIVE!
Your content got selected by our fellow curator @priyanarc & you just received a little thank you via an upvote from our non-profit curation initiative!
You will be featured in one of our recurring curation compilations and on our pinterest boards! Both are aiming to offer you a stage to widen your audience within and outside of the DIY scene of hive.
Join the official DIYHub community on HIVE and show us more of your amazing work and feel free to connect with us and other DIYers via our discord server: https://discord.gg/mY5uCfQ !
If you want to support our goal to motivate other DIY/art/music/homesteading/... creators just delegate to us and earn 100% of your curation rewards!
Stay creative & hive on!
HI @priyanarc
Oh my!!!!!
My heart leaps with joy to see you here
I pray hope you are in a better place <33
Over a hundred thousand attend the feast??? I'd hate to see that food bill!
Funny :D
🤣Is it a potluck style, where everyone brings something?
!PIZZA !ALIVE !LOL
Hello sh33,It's Janis from Luno's Women in Crypto. Thanks for your tips and words of encouragement from your sharing. Managed to successfully created my account here. Would love to go through all your postings. Cheers !
Congratulations ;D
Welcome to Hive <33