Where Devout Catholics Must Stay When In Singapore
Visited 261 times already, 1 so far todayFor some funny reasons, this year will be the third year that I spent my Easter on a holiday.
Six years ago, my husband and I were in Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island of Canada) during the Easter weekend and had to bear having many of the shops closed for the holiday.
Then in 2006, we spent a week in Peninsular Malaysia and was in Melaka during the Easter weekend. Since we were with my Sabah family, we made it for the Easter Vigil mass at the oldest Catholic church in Malaysia, St. Peter’s Church.
Last weekend was another Easter spent away from home and this time, we were in Singapore.
I was at first disappointed that my hotel of choice was fully booked but the hotel I finally settled on turned out to be the perfect one - when it comes to being a Catholic and especially on Easter.
This was because barely 300m outside our hotel doorsteps, were 3 Catholic churches which were more than 150 years old each! I could not help but stop every time we passed by any of them, amazed that such buildings exist amidst skyscrapers.
There was the Church of Sts. Peter & Paul which was opposite our hotel and the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd which was across the Bras Basah road.
But it was St. Joseph’s Church, founded in 1851 and 2 buildings down from our hotel that we got more familiar with as we attended it’s Sunday Easter mass yesterday morning.
As on the outside, the interior was very beautiful and it must be a nice motivation to have such a lovely church to attend to every weekend.
I now know which area to stay at when one is in Singapore and is a devout Catholic. With a minimum of 10 hotels and at least 3 beautiful churches in the surrounding vicinity, you cannot go wrong with the Bras Basah/Bugis area.
My sister asked me yesterday if being away for Easter was intentional - it was not as we usually make holiday plans months ahead but I now wonder where we will be spending Easter in 2009.
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March 25th, 2008 at 12:40 am
My kids decided to hangout with grandma last Sunday, and with no kids in tow, we went a-walkin in my fav city! Decided to walk into an “unfamiliar” church on impulse! And wow! The architecture, the stain glass, most of all . . . the sense of peace! The choir was performing and I was completely captivated. Too bad I didn’t carry my camera with me at that time. Hey, Jewelle, I think we should start a new family tradition ~ visiting churches (especially the really old ones)!! Too beautiful to pass up!
Since you’re in the “photography” business, you must carry a compact camera next time to capture these moments! I like old buildings and I will definitely be interested to visit other old churches.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
It seems that you like going holiday on Easter period.. as you said up there.
anyway, i love seeing all these beautiful churches and what more they are all catholics’. Great. Bila lah ada satu di Sabah ni.
It just happened that for the last few years we find ourselves to be on holiday during Easter - not planned! Ai, the St. Michael’s Church in Penampang is a good example of beautiful old church bah. And I think around Papar are a few more…