Parish Piggy Preparations

- July 15, 2019

The Lunar Chinese New Year Mass at my parish is a major affair that involves many ministries working together. Planning started months ago. Kudos to the altar ladies for their beautiful centerpiece at the altar.

Gratitude to the volunteers who had unpacked and washed all the mandarin oranges before the big day. And also gratitude to the kulis who came early to move the few kilograms of mandarin oranges into position (never fails to work up a sweat!).

This guy even had to climb so high to hang the 'green' (Chinese lettuce) for the lion dance. And there were many, many, many, many chairs to be arranged outside the church.

The liturgy was led by the Chinese-speaking congregation, but they also roped in the English-speaking congregation for added hands.

Setting up the table for commemoration of ancestors also takes special know-how by the liturgy group.

And look at the special offerings just for the occasion. So pretty! And at the end, mandarin oranges and red packets were distributed to all the parishioners. Many hospitality ministry staff patiently routed the traffic and performed crowd control. Thanks to all of them!

After mass, we went to Midvalley Megamall for lunch, and to look at the mall decorations. Sushi Tei didn't have a long queue outside, so we quickly dashed in. Without the Malay staff working on CNY1, we wouldn't have been able to enjoy the wagyu roll, and seasonal fish like olive snapper and parrot fish.

Janvier and KH also joined us for coffee at Krispy Kreme. Not our first choice, but all the other coffee joints were mobbed by customers. Shared a couple of seasonal doughnuts, and you know what, they brew a decent cup of hazelnut latte. It was nice catching up with Janvier.

Then we went around camwhoring at the beautiful oriental sets, obviously inspired by "Story of Yanxi Palace". Would be perfect if one had Qing dynasty imperial robes lying around. But mum did bump into her friend who was purposely wore a sequined evening gown just for photography! At one end of the mall, a Chinese orchestra played theme music from popular period dramas in mainland China....