Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Eye | Land | View

(click on photo to enlarge)
On a little island in the South China Sea, for good or ill, there are small but significant Roman Catholic and various Evangelical congregations.

Christmas Eve? Several separate groups of carol singers, one after the other, doing mostly the same songs in Cantonese and English, in the square for ten or fifteen minutes before moving on elsewhere. Later, at the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, the Catholic church is packed to overflowing with Filipino domestic helpers.

The Evangelicals, on the other hand, draw their support from within the local population and like to parade around the island. Christmas Day evening, they did a major procession along the waterfront: a fairy-light train featuring Father Christmas.

Mister Bijou's Christmas? Some wonderful presents followed by a great Christmas lunch on the roof at Mike, Wai-fong and Charlie's. As usual, there were a dozen or us and the sun shone. Brill!

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