Myanmar’s Catholics celebrate 500th jubilee with events in Yangon

 

 

MYANMAR : The Roman Catholic Church in Myanmar is celebrating the end of its 500th jubilee year this week with musical and dance events. Tens of thousands of people from across the country are expected to attend the events, which will end on Sunday, reported The Irrawaddy. 

 

At Yangon’s 100-year-old St. Mary’s Cathedral on Friday, Christian hymns filled the air as Catholics from various ethnic backgrounds congregated to celebrate their religion.

People sang peaceful songs in Myanmar’s largest church, which was filled to its 1,500-seat capacity, and many more people gathered outside.

An estimated 30,000 people from various states, such as Chin, Kachin, Karenni, Mandalay, Mon, Bago, Shan and Sagaing, are expected to attended the events, organizers said.

The Bishops Conference of Burma started celebrations for the “500th Great Jubilee Year” on Nov. 24, 2013 and with a number of events in the coming days the jubilee year will officially come to a close coming on Sunday, Nov. 23.

Organizers of the jubilee year said Catholicism was first brought to Myanmar’s shores by Portuguese sailors in 1511, but the 500-year jubilee could not be held in 2011 because of repression of religious minorities by the then-military regime, which has long promoted a nationalist, Buddhist identity for Myanmar.

As the political reforms of recent years have created more space for some religious minorities, the church chose to mark the jubilee this year.