Easter in China
We did not even attempt to get to the Easter Vigil Mass at Nantou Church. I heard from a few people that with the wind and the rain made the beginning difficult, but they managed, and it was a beautiful Mass. I am a bit disappointed; my new words this week could have been "Christ our Light.....Thanks be to God!" in Chinese.
We did attend the English-language Mass. Because of the huge attendance anticipated (remember, this isn't only just a Chreaster thing here; many people travel 2 hours or more by bus to get to Mass, if they aren't working), we were moved to a larger space than the school cafeteria. We were moved to the gym, which is actually in the Chapel-looking building.
I mean, you wonder if the planners for this expat school/neighborhood thought that churches end up in school gyms anyway, so why not just cut to the chase?
There was nothing out of the ordinary about the Mass. The music tended towards very Praise-and-Worship-y type music, including the closing hymn which was partially in Tagalog.
Because Mass was in the afternoon, we were able to meet some of my friends for brunch. One family, Katie's, is Orthodox, and she was confused why we were able to schedule brunch before Mass. I reminded her that we were Catholic, which meant that we only had to fast for an hour before Communtion. She already knew our fast and abstaince rules were nothing compared to hers (no meat or dairy any day during Lent), but I didn't have the heart to tell her that for the Diocese of Hong Kong, only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are fast/abstainance days, and this year Ash Wednesday was waved because it fell during Chinese New Year.
We ate at the absolutely opulent Kempinski Hotel. Randy couldn't remember where he had heard of the hotel, until later when he remembered he had stayed in the one in Budapest ten years ago. This hotel does a Western-style buffet every Sunday, but for Easter they went all-out. I wish I had gotten pictures of the really good parts. It was incredible.
While most of us were oohing and ahhing over the real baked goods and chocolate goodies, Katie went rounds with the meats. This is round one.
I call it Orthodox Christians Gone Wild.
Katie's family did get to participate in Orthodox services from Holy Thursday on in Shenzhen. A priest came up from Hong Kong for the Orthodox Christians (mostly Russians, I think) that live here. On Saturday night, their Pashca Liturgy lasted until close to 4 am! WOW.
We did attend the English-language Mass. Because of the huge attendance anticipated (remember, this isn't only just a Chreaster thing here; many people travel 2 hours or more by bus to get to Mass, if they aren't working), we were moved to a larger space than the school cafeteria. We were moved to the gym, which is actually in the Chapel-looking building.
I mean, you wonder if the planners for this expat school/neighborhood thought that churches end up in school gyms anyway, so why not just cut to the chase?
There was nothing out of the ordinary about the Mass. The music tended towards very Praise-and-Worship-y type music, including the closing hymn which was partially in Tagalog.
Because Mass was in the afternoon, we were able to meet some of my friends for brunch. One family, Katie's, is Orthodox, and she was confused why we were able to schedule brunch before Mass. I reminded her that we were Catholic, which meant that we only had to fast for an hour before Communtion. She already knew our fast and abstaince rules were nothing compared to hers (no meat or dairy any day during Lent), but I didn't have the heart to tell her that for the Diocese of Hong Kong, only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are fast/abstainance days, and this year Ash Wednesday was waved because it fell during Chinese New Year.
We ate at the absolutely opulent Kempinski Hotel. Randy couldn't remember where he had heard of the hotel, until later when he remembered he had stayed in the one in Budapest ten years ago. This hotel does a Western-style buffet every Sunday, but for Easter they went all-out. I wish I had gotten pictures of the really good parts. It was incredible.
While most of us were oohing and ahhing over the real baked goods and chocolate goodies, Katie went rounds with the meats. This is round one.
I call it Orthodox Christians Gone Wild.
Katie's family did get to participate in Orthodox services from Holy Thursday on in Shenzhen. A priest came up from Hong Kong for the Orthodox Christians (mostly Russians, I think) that live here. On Saturday night, their Pashca Liturgy lasted until close to 4 am! WOW.
Comments