MELAKA: The Melaka Portuguese community is ready to turn a significant celebration - The Feast of the Assumption - into a major attraction for the Visit Melaka Year 2024 (TMM 2024).
Chairman of the Save The Portuguese Action Committee chairman Martin Theseira said the celebration which was also known as the "sugarcane feast" could attract a large number of visitors.
"The decorations surrounding Assumption Church along Praya Lane in Bandar Hilir can be turned into a fairyland to attract tourists and Catholics from all over the world," he said in an interview on Tuesday (Aug 15).
Theseira who led the decoration team for this year's celebration said new ideas should be injected into TMM 2024 to entice different groups of tourists in the state.
"The celebration is among the major events of Roman Catholics all over the country.
"However, the celebration at Praya Lane is very unique where the compound of Assumption Church is decorated with sugarcane and other ornaments," he said.
Theseira said he also hoped to turn the celebration into a major tourism event for the state as it had been a low-key affair for all these years although the feast has its roots in early Melaka history.
"Promoting the celebration as one of the calendar events for TMM2024 would also boost the revenue for the state and local vendors," he said, adding that the heritage and traditions relating to the feast are kept alive by the community until today.
Theseira said the sugarcane was normally blessed by the priest and would be distributed to the congregation after the Church service.
He said the Assumption Church was built in the 1800s according to the historian, the late Father Pintado.
He said the sugarcane was significant in the celebration based on one account which goes back to the Dutch occupation of Melaka in 1641.
