In the Catholic tradition, the celebration of Easter is a three-day culmination that begins on the evening of the Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. According to the bible, the day before he was executed Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples before retiring to the garden of Gethsemane (“oil-press”) to pray. He asks his disciples to stay awake and pray with him. (The sleepyheads however, do not.) To commemorate the vigil, churches stay open until midnight and churchgoers are encouraged to spend an hour waiting and praying. In Singapore, Catholics have a practice of visiting different churches on Maundy Thursday night, which is not observed anywhere else in region. How did this tradition of visiting churches on Maundy Thursday night come about? My mission for the night was twofold: first, determine if this practice of church-visiting was truly something unique to Singapore. Secondly, to determine when and why this practice came about.

My circuit for the evening were three churches in the east: Queen of Peace, Holy Family and Our Lady of Perpetual Succor. At 9 pm, the Queen of Peace church at Sandy Lane was anything but peaceful! Church wardens were busy directing visitor traffic. Father Francis from Queen of Peace told me that this tradition of visiting churches only happens on Maundy Thursday. He said that “in the old days”, people used to walk to different churches by way of pilgrimage and while walking, people would say their prayers. Outside, the canteen had specially opened to receive the evening’s visitors and hot cross buns, among other food to refresh hungry pilgrims.
Most of the pilgrims that I spoke to that evening knew that it was a practice in Singapore, and a few of them said that it was something that was unique to Singapore. The rationale is simple and practical. Because Singapore’s small it’s easy to go church visiting. Even by foot one can easily visit three or four churches in an evening, and with a car you can double or triple your visits. One Malaysian told me that he wouldn’t have been able to visit churches like we do, primarily because there’s no church within 60km of where he lived. A couple of people that I spoke to said that in Rome, a similar practice is carried out on Maundy Thursday. Whether these two traditions have the same root remains to be determined. With Christianity still being a minority religion in this part of the world and the size of Singapore, it’s safe to say that the practice of visiting churches on Maundy Thursday is unique to the region. What about the origin and intent of this practice? Linda, a mother of four from the Church of the Holy Family, said that she’s been following this tradition since she was born. As a child, her family would always visit the city churches of the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, Saints Peter and Paul and St Joseph’s Church on Victoria Street. While the practice is not a requirement of the church, Linda admits that nowadays it’s become more of a social tradition – but one that gives people a chance to see other churches.You can’t tell from the picture, but at 11pm the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succor on Siglap Hill is still packed with visitors and the car park is full. A decade ago, visitors would come by the busloads as church-visiting becomes a group activity. These days, buses are rare as the church officially does not encourage the practice. The church now rather its members spend more quiet time in prayer and less time travelling from place to place. Old habits die hard though, and popular piety is still tough to beat. Despite its obscure origins, people find enough meaning in this practice to continue doing it year after year.