Reviving tradition: (Front) Sister Bing and Sem. Don Peña with (back) Lady Zoe Price, Emmie Stenhouse, Marissa Wyatt, Cecilia Babano, Nora McCarthy, Vivian Natale, Guilly Jones and Benita Connelly.
Photo by
Rodney Braithwaite
Twelve years since traditional Catholic Filipino Christmas services were last held in Shepparton, Misa de Gallo dawn masses are attracting strong crowds of worshippers from different cultural backgrounds. They come together to celebrate the true meaning of the sacred day — unity, gratitude and love.
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St Brendan’s Catholic Parish is waking early in the lead-up to Christmas, to revive a tradition left untouched locally for more than a decade.
This year, a Filipino Catholic priest is travelling from another town or city in regional Victoria to lead Misa de Gallo at St Brendan’s from 6am every day until December 24.
Shepparton-based organiser and Filipino seminarian Adonis Peña said Misa de Gallo became a tradition in his culture when Christianity was introduced to the Phillipines almost 500 years ago.
“It was introduced by the Spaniards, or the Spanish friars, in the 17th century,” he said.
Misa de Gallo means ‘mass for the roosters’ in Spanish.
“Metaphorically, it's speaks of an early mass before the farmers start their mornings in the fields,” Sem. Peña said.
While the mass typically starts at 4.30am in the Phillipines, the morning service at St Brendan’s starts later to attract worshippers who aren’t such early risers and to allow travel time for those coming from neighbouring towns.
Sem. Peña said the first service on December 16 was a big success, with about 50 people of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds in the pews.
"The turnout was very surprising,“ he said, having expected a group of no more than 10 people, mostly from Filipino backgrounds.
Early to rise: (Clockwise from front) Sem. Don Peña, Nora McCarthy, Sister Bing, Marissa Wyatt, Emmie Stenhouse, Lady Zoe Price, Cecilia Babano, Vivian Natale, Guilly Jones and Benita Connelly.
Photo by
Rodney Braithwaite
Catholic nun Annabelle Delos Santos, known as Sister Bing, said she had been dreaming of bringing Filipinos living in Australia together and was very happy and excited to see Misa de Gallo revived in the Goulburn Valley.
“The mass brings us closer to God and each other, which is the purpose of Christmas,” she said.
Like the first Misa de Gallo masses in the Phillipines, which were for farming families, Sem. Peña said the Goulburn Valley agricultural community was central to the services held in Shepparton this year.
“Every mass we remember the farmers who work hard day and night, in the Goulburn Valley as well as Australia as a whole, in our prayers,” Sem. Peña said.
