KINTA CHRONICLES: The Awesome Inter-Faith Christmas Carnival 2019

(From right) Anthony Rodgers, Fr Joseph Stephen, Shazni Bhai Rashid, Miss Irene and Fr Patrick Massang cut the Christmas cake at the successful Inter-Faith carnival

Christmas 2019 will long be remembered for the very successful Interfaith Christmas Carnival held at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Church.

Held on the evening of 20 December it brought the communities of different faiths together to celebrate Christmas in peace, happiness and joy.

The carnival this year brought out a 2000 strong crowd unlike in previous years when the committee organized a gathering but attracted a crowd of a few hundred participants.

The inaugural Inter-Faith carnival .....

.... attracted over 2000 strong crowd

Most of the crowd when asked responded that the event was ‘awesome’ as they were impressed with the well organized evening and the programs lined being exceptionally good.

Fr Joseph Stephen the driving force behind the Inter-faith group and part of the organizing committee advised the crowd to use the carnival well as it had catered for the night with lots of food and entertainment.

Fr Joseph Stephens ..'use this carnival .... get to know each other well '

...Fr Joseph with James Ratnam (in red) Chairperson of MCCBCHST

“More importantly we want to stress a point that Malaysia is beginning to experience tension, uneasiness and difficulty to accept peoples of other races and religions.

This makes life very difficult and challenging not for ourselves but for the future of our children and grandchildren.

The Christmas spirit that Christ came for is peace, harmony, love and unity.

If we can live our life accordingly in this multi-religious and multiracial-society then we can begin to proclaim an alternate Malaysia where people of all religions can live in peace and harmony without hate or rejecting one’s race or one’s religion for whatever reason.

So let use this time well at this carnival. Malaysia is a place for eating. Don’t just eat your foods but get to know each other well at the same time”.

This carnival had all the ingredients of a good family event. Entertainment was provided by the choirs St Michaels Church, Our Lady of Lourdes Church and Our Mother of Perpetual Help Church.

The Choirs.... OMPH Church Combined Choir ...

..St Michaels Church Latin Choir ...

..and Our Lady of Lourdes Church Tamil Choir

Additionally for the first time there was participation from Orang Asli and children’s choirs.

The Orang Asli were recent winners of the ‘Orang Asli Got Talent’ competition that was organized by the Sacred Heart Church, Kampar.

First time participants, Children's choir from St Michaels Church ....

...and OLOL Church

Orang Asli winners of 'Orang Asli Have Talent' from ......

..... from Sacred Heart Church, Kampar.

Migrants from OLOL Church perform a sketch 'Doa Kami'

The programs included a variety of food stalls, games including battery operated toys and sale of Christmas goodies and was in a true sense a carnival.

The carnival kicked off at 6.30pm sharp. Miraculously the ‘evening rain had stopped at 6.20pm’ so said the Parish Priest Fr Patrick Massang and it was good weather the remainder of the night.

The early crowd patronized ......

...dinner tents ....

and other stalls ...

..offering a variety of foods ...

.... Christmas items ...

..and games of the battery operated kind

Most of the early crowd made for the dinner tent while others patronized the games and Christmas gift stalls.

Linda Rosovits, who now lives in Germany was home for the season said that the event was lively and multiracial and that it was amazing it was happening on Church grounds.