HONG KONG (SE): The Chaozhou community in Hong Kong celebrated its 70th anniversary of their annual pilgrimage to Our Lady of Fatima Church in Cheung Chau on January 24, the third day of the Lunar New Year this year. It is also their first pilgrimage since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic three years ago.
The community joyfully attended a Mass celebrated by Father Edward Chau King-fun and other priests.
A year after the establishment of Our Lady of Fatima parish in 1952, the community, made up of people who had migrated from Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong province, resolved to make an annual pilgrimage to the church on the third day of the Lunar New Year.
They reasoned that as Chinese people traditionally believe that it is easy to misspeak or offend others during new year visits on that day, it would be best for families to go and pay homage to Our Lady and offer prayers to her, asking for her blessings for peace and happiness. It became their way of giving thanks to Our Lady and asking her to continue to bless them with her protection.
In the mid-1950s, the community once hired three ferries, each carrying about 600 passengers, to take pilgrims to Cheung Chau, according to an old report by Kung Kao Po.
Lunar New Year. Photos supplied
The Mass is quite distinctive: it is preceded by the recitation of five decades of the rosary in the Chaozhou dialect. In the 1960s, the Gloria and the Creed at Mass began to be recited in their dialect as well.
Two separate donations are made during the offertory. One is for the church in Cheung Chau and the other for the churches in Chaozhou and Shantou, for maintenance, clergy formation and living expenses.
Father John Baptist Lam Chi-yuen, who passed away in October last year, was dedicated to serving the community. Before the end of the Mass, Father Lam used to announce the financial situation of the donations to the community, and talk about the current situation of the priests, sisters and faithful on mainland. Father Chau took over Father Lam’s duties after he suffered from health issues.
Besides Father Lam and Father Chau, priests who have celebrated Mass for the community over the past decades included Father John Lee who passed away in 1992, diocesan priests, Father Lawrence Yiu Shun-kit, Father Joseph Ng Shu-shing, Father Peter Lo Pak-wing, Father Moses Ngai Tak-man, as well as Salesian Father Thomas Lee Yick-kiu and Franciscan Father Stephen Chan Moon-hung, most of them can speak the Chaozhou dialect.
