beautiful wood statue of st anne

here you go! and it’s life-sized!

this statue, among many others, big and small, and also plaques, was found at the church of st anne when i was there for its annual st anne’s feast day celebration on 26 july, thursday.

yes, i was at the st anne’s church for the annual feast of st anne’s celebration. this year the celebration started on 20 july (and it will and this sunday, 29 july).

26 july was the actual day of the feast i.e. saints anne and joachim. ah i suppose not many people especially non catholics, know there is a ‘joachim’ there. who is st joachim? none other than the husband of st anne. 26 july (every year) is actually the feast of sts anne and joachim but it is the woman who get all the attention. haha.

every year i usually go on the actual day, 26 july, because our church booked a bus to fetch us to and fro. we left our church at 3.30pm – that gave us ample time to walk around, pray, visit the shop and so on, before mass started at 6.00pm. we did not stay back for the procession, so went back immediately after mass (at 8.00pm).

this year there were something new for pilgrims to see – the souvenir and gift shop (which was open early this year) and a wood carving exhibition. i had been to the shop before so not interested in it. i was interested in the wood carving (statues and plaques) exhibition which was held only this one time.  apart from statues of st anne, there were  statues of jesus too (all life-sized) and huge crosses.

i was told all the statues  were hand carved and imported from vietnam. they were all on sale! but very expensive lah. i love these plaques (is that the right word for them?) wooden plate art pieces … but they cost RM110! me no earn from my ads in my blog yet so no can buy. 🙁

others small statues cost at least RM200, i think. i spy a few that costs RM300 and RM500.

hey, i told you the st anne’s statue (pic posted right on top) is life-sized…. see, st anne is taller than me!

do you know how much this statue cost? a cool RM19,000!! wow!! any millionaire out there want to buy this statue and donate it to the church of st anne? ok lah, no need millionaire…  if you are just generous enough, maybe can donate to me the RM110 plaque wooden plate art pieces. 🙂
(note the latest picture of me show me in my latest hair-style – had my hair cut very short 2 weeks ago).

read star metro’s report on the feast.

UPDATED 28/07/07, 11:20 PM
there was also an article about the wood carvings which i can’t find online. only knew about it today when i flipped through yesterday’s paper (yeah up to now still haven’t got time to read yesterday’s paper!). it was from there that i note the proper name ‘wooden plate art pieces’ instead of plaques! ok since i can’t fine the article online, i’m reproducing it here:

Holy carvings and pictures on sale

The St Anne’s Church in Jalan Kulim will soon have a children’s library and resource centre, parish priest, Mongignor Stephen Liew said.

He said the centre would have a good stock of Catholic books as well as computers with religious software programmes.

Monsignor Liew said that at an interview yesterday that the church would sell 120 wooden carvings depicting the Holy Family of the Virgin Mary, Jesus and Joseph as well as of St Anne to raise funds for the centre.

The carvings were imported from Vietnam, courtesy of Living Spring Enterprise.

"Most of the carvings are etched from drift wood. They are priced between RM350 and RM600.

"The life-sized carvings are priced between RM6.000 and RM24,400." he said, adding that there were also wooden plate art pieces priced at RM110 and RM350.

Monsignor Liew said that the carvings were on sale at the church’s gift shop during St Anne’s Novena and Feast this weekend.

He said there were also 19 exclusive holy pictures made from crushed precious stones.

The pictures, also imported from Vietnam are priced at RM2,500 each. For details, call the church office at 04-5386405/5394744.