Malacca fishermen celebrate Feast of St Peter

A Creole people descended from the Portuguese, the Kristang celebrate their patron saint every year with four days of celebrations that attract tourists and visitors from all over Malaysia and other countries. "Today there are no more shrimps on our shores and this creates problems for the future. But we strive to maintain our faith and our traditions."

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) - Among the many faces of the feast of St Peter around the world, one of the most particular to Asia is the feast of fishermen in the Portuguese settlement of Malacca, Malaysia, which today sees the conclusion of the annual celebrations, which began on Thursday, 27 June.

Theseira, a retired fisherman, tells AsiaNews that the celebrations began on Thursday 27 June. The feast of St Peter is a major four-day annual event attended by about 100,000 visitors from all over Malaysia and foreign tourists. "An important moment of the festival is the blessing of local fishermen's boats, specially decorated for the occasion, in the hope that the saint's intercession will ensure good fishing," Theseira explains.

The Eurasian Portuguese - otherwise known as Kristang or simply as 'Malacca Portuguese' - are a Creole ethnic group, mainly composed of Portuguese descendants who intermarried with local communities such as Malays, Dutch descendants, British descendants, Chinese and Indians. During the festival, one can listen to special Kristang folk songs and watch dancers in colourful costumes perform to the rhythm of Branyu folk music, a genre of upbeat music of Portuguese Eurasians. According to Theseira, about 1,500 Portuguese Eurasians live in the settlement area, excluding the diaspora living in other parts of the country or who have emigrated abroad.

The Portuguese settlement was founded in 1933 on the banks of Ujong Pasir to create a refuge for the Kristang. Known initially as Saint John's Village, it soon attracted Kristang from other parts of Malacca as well. Gradually, it grew to become a major tourist attraction in the area and a refuge to reinforce the rich heritage and cultural traits in the practice of their Catholic faith, as well as to preserve their rituals and traditions.

However, Theseira laments the fact that land reclamation since 1974 has caused the daily catch to plummet. The Kristang are excellent fishermen and are known in particular for their skills in shrimp fishing, better known as udang geragau in Malay and grago in Eurasian Portuguese, which are widely used in their cuisine.

'There are no more gragos on our coasts,' Theseira explains, 'and that means there are no more fisheries for us. There is not even good fishing for fish, which used to be abundant. We are forced to put our nets further ashore and today we are lucky if we can catch 20 kilos of grago'.

"The settlers," he continues, "now have to engage in deep-sea fishing with better, more modern and expensive boats. Traditionally, we do not engage in deep-sea fishing and cannot challenge the competition, so our days as traditional fishermen are over, really, with only about 20 fishermen now putting their boats to sea. But we are people of faith and hope. We are staunch Catholics and we strive to keep our faith and live the traditions of our ancestors, even though fishing is no longer the main occupation of the Kristang who live here. Our community,' he concludes, 'will continue to keep in its heart and spirit the tradition of celebrating these feasts and anniversaries, looking up to St Peter, our patron and model saint.

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