By Joseph Masilamany
MALACCA — Every year, as the Christian world enters the solemn days of Holy Week — Semana Santa, as the Portuguese call it — something profoundly quaint and extraordinary unfolds in the historic Malaysian city of Malacca.
Along the cobbled streets outside St. Peter’s Church, sacred traditions are not only upheld by Catholic descendants of Portuguese conquerors but also quietly honoured by non-Christian Hindu Chitty families and the Baba-Nyonya Peranakan Chinese Catholic community.
These shared rituals reflect a living tapestry of devotion that transcends creed, culture, and time.
For generations, these communities — rooted in hybrid beliefs and multicultural heritage — have participated in the rituals of Holy Week not out of obligation, but out of a deep, inherited respect and cultural continuity.
Martin Theseira, a Portuguese descendant residing in Portuguese Square, notes that on both Palm Sunday and Good Friday, members of the Chitty and Peranakan communities bring bunga rampai — a fragrant mix of shredded flower petals, pandan leaves, and perfume — to lay at the foot of the crucified Christ at St. Peter’s Church.
“This simple, beautiful gesture speaks of a shared memory,” he tells UCA News. “It reminds us that reverence doesn’t always require conversion, only understanding.”
He explains that in the local dialects of these communities, the sacred days of Passion Week carry colloquial names steeped in meaning.
“Palm Sunday becomes Datuk Pikol Balak, literally ‘the Lord carries the wood.’ It’s a tender, local rendering of Jesus bearing the Cross. Good Friday is Datuk Mati — ‘the Lord is dead.’
“These terms, passed down through generations, reveal how language, faith, and folklore intertwine in the Malaccan consciousness. This is not dilution, but reverence. Not mimicry, but respect. It is syncretism at its most beautiful — and it is uniquely Malaysian,” he says.
Further down the Malaccan coast, in the seaside enclave of Ujong Pasir, the Portuguese Settlement awakens to its own sacred rhythms of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, and Good Friday.
This community is home to descendants of Portuguese missionaries and seafarers who arrived in 1511, bringing with them the Catholic faith, Kristang language, music, and a way of life that still endures in the sea breeze and chapel bells.
For the Portuguese Catholics of Malacca — many of whom still speak Kristang, a creole blend of Malay and Portuguese — Holy Week is not merely a liturgical event. It is a sacred expression of identity, memory, and devotion.
Father Manuel Pintado, a former parish priest of St. Peter’s, documents these living traditions in his book Survival Through Human Values. He writes that it was the Augustinian missionaries who first introduced the ceremonies centred on the Passion of Christ.
On Palm Sunday, the procession begins at sunset. Two Irmaos de Igreja — senior lay leaders — lead the faithful, bearing banners of the Holy Eucharist and Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows).
Life-size wooden statues of “Christ Shouldering the Cross” and a mourning Mary are carried around the church grounds, followed by candle-bearing devotees with palm fronds in hand.
Halfway through the procession, a young Portuguese-Eurasian girl, portraying Veronica, unveils a veil imprinted with the Holy Face of Christ, a solemn act of devotion that has been passed down through generations.
On Good Friday, the statue of the Dead Lord is borne on a wooden bier and followed in a candlelit procession. Three young boys play the roles of the Tres Marias (Three Marys), chanting a mournful Latin dirge that pierces the stillness of the night.
“These sacred traditions belong uniquely to the Portuguese descendants of Malacca,” says Theseira, “and are rarely witnessed beyond this historic enclave.”
Based on the memoirs of Pintado and the reflections of Theseira, it’s clear that in Malacca, faith does not walk in isolation, but in harmony with heritage, where even those who do not share the creed share in the reverence.
In this sacred silence of Holy Week, the soul of the city kneels together as one.
