Our Lady of the Sacred Heart feast day

The New Guinea Islands girls who led the Bible procession in our Mass this morning (oh yeah, and me!). It was our Feast Day today, for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, and we had a big celebration mass in the morning. I love the way they mix traditional PNG dances with the Catholic ceremony here. The girls dance the Priest down the aisle, have the processions for the Bible and the Sacraments, and then close the service, dancing and singing everything back out again. It's a pretty wild mix, and you can see how close the mysticism of the religious symbols is to traditional beliefs in magic. 


The girls dancing and singing as they bring the Bible (in the canoe) down to the altar (can you see the fluro pink edging, instead of the traditional gold - courtesy of someone's highlighter in RE class, no doubt!)