BUKIT MERTAJAM: The Feast of St Anne will culminate today with a 1.6km candlelight procession.
More than 100,000 pilgrims, including foreign tourists, are expected at the Minor Basilica of St Anne here for end of the annual 10-day St Anne Feast, one of the country’s largest religious celebrations.
Church Deacon Reverend Lazarus Anthony said the festival, which included the nine-day novena (devotional praying in Christianity), started on July 19.
The candlelight procession will be held from 7pm, starting from gate 3 of St Anne’s church through Jalan Kulim, Jalan Kampung Baru and Jalan Berjaya before returning to gate 1 of the church at about 11pm.
Rev Lazarus told Bernama that the highlight of this year’s celebration will be the multilingual open-air Mass at 7pm in English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil, followed by the annual procession at the end of the Mass.
Seberang Perai Tengah police chief Asst Comm Helmi Aris said several main roads around Bukit Mertajam would be closed for two days from 9am today to 3pm tomorrow in conjunction with the celebration.
The Feast of St Anne at Bukit Mertajam takes place at the end of July every year.
Catholics celebrate the feast day today.
This year, the theme is “Enlarge the Space of Your Tent”, inspired by the Bible.
