Faiths/Festivals of European Immigrants

Source 1: An excerpt about Mr Benjamin Franklin West, a doctor and missionary who was active in Penang and Singapore. He arrived in Singapore in 1888.

To reach out to the Chinese community, West was appointed to head the local Chinese mission in April 1889. He began his work at Upper Nankin Street, where he had set up a clinic at one of the shophouses. Using the missionary model applied in China, the secular outfit also served as an agency for religious and educational services. He started two Sunday services in August 1889 at the shophouse, preaching to a congregation of 30 in Malay which was translated into Hokkien. It was these services conducted by West at his shophouse that marked the beginnings of the Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church, notably the first church to exclusively see to the spiritual needs of the Chinese Methodist community in Singapore. West was fluent in various Chinese dialects, including Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese, and this helped him to reach out to the Chinese community. He also learned Malay and knew enough Tamil to read the rites and rituals for service.

West went against current assumptions that the Chinese could not be understood, and advocated closer study of their culture and philosophy in order to break barriers and understand them better.

Reference:

Tan, B. (2009). Benjamin Franklin West. Singapore Infopedia, National Library Board. Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1511_2009-11-30.html?s=Missionaries--Singapore

Source 2: An excerpt about Sophia Blackmore, the first woman missionary sent by the Methodist Women's Foreign Missionary Society to work in Singapore. During her stay in Singapore from 1887 to 1928, she helped to found two Methodist schools for girls: Methodist Girls' School and Fairfield Methodist Girls’ School.

To help her in her work, a certain Inche Ismail taught the young Blackmore High Malay (classical Malay). However, the language used by the various communities that came to Singapore at the turn of the 20th century was a form of colloquial Malay. Soon, Blackmore became proficient enough in local street Malay to translate hymns. She also published the Baba Malay paper, Sahabat, using the printing press of William G. Shellabear, a Methodist missionary and scholar in Malay literature, writer, editor, translator and founder of the Methodist Publishing House. The paper was originally meant for women, but it became so popular that its readership extended from Singapore to Penang and beyond.

Blackmore held Malay-language Sunday worship services in the study room of her home on Sophia Road. Her small congregation, which comprised female boarders from the Nind Home, boys from Epworth Home (a trade school and orphanage) as well as Malay-speaking Christian workers from the nearby mission press led by Shellabear, became the nucleus from which grew the Straits Chinese Church on Middle Road.

Reference:

Tan, B. (2020). Sophia Blackmore. Singapore Infopedia, National Library Board. Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1339_2008-10-10.html?s=Missionaries--Singapore

Source 3: An advertisement from Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning 22 January 1906.

Reference:

Eastern Daily Mail and Straits Morning Advertiser. (1906). Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Page/easterndaily19060122-1.1.2?ST=1&AT=advanced&K=Hotel+New%20World&KA=Hotel+New%20World&DF=01%2F01%2F1906&DT=31%2F12%2F1906&NPT=&L=&CTA=&oref=search-visualiser&QT=hotel,new,world&oref=article

Source 4: Advertisement for Christmas gifts from The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 14 May 1906.

Reference:

Sunday Tribune (Singapore). (1937). Retrieved from https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Page/sundaytribune19371212-1.1.11?ST=1&AT=search&k=Christmas&QT=christmas&oref=article

Source 5: Interview of Mr William Martinez as he recounted how he celebrated Christmas when he was young. This interview was conducted in 1984.

How was Christmas celebrated? Well, just before Christmas, the lads in our locality on our neighbourhood would rehearse Christmas hymns and also we have comic sketches and we wear fancy costumes. Then we go house to house to give a show. First we start with Christmas hymns and then we start entertaining with songs and we have wise cracks. We let each household know that we are visiting, so thye invite their friends, so there is usually a crowd in every house. We give about an hour show and then we get into a lorry and get to the next house until three or four in the morning sometimes.

Reference:

Martinez.W. (1984). How was Christmas celebrated? National Archives of Singapore. Retrieved from https://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/Flipviewer/publish/e/ebdbbb03-115d-11e3-83d5-0050568939ad-OHC000446_004/web/html5/index.html?launchlogo=tablet/OralHistoryInterviews_brandingLogo_.png&pn=1

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