The Danish Seamen’s Church in Singapore held a very successful Christmas Bazaar this Weekend with almost 2000 guests. The priest of the church, Kirsten Eistrup, empathizes that it would not have been possible without the tremendous help from the volunteers.
From the foot of Mount Faber and all the way up to the Danish Seamen’s Church in Singapore, cars were jamming the street and volunteers from the church helped to smooth the traffic with their guidance. No doubt that the Christmas Bazaar is on of the absolute highlights of the church and on the Weekend of the 24-25th of December, the church could boast of an extraordinary successful bazaar.
Despite the heat of the sun, it was easy to feel like being in Denmark among the Danish Christmas decorations, handmade advent wreaths, the scent of genuine Christmas trees and the abundance of treats and traditional food. And the food was indeed something people looked forward to. The tents covering the outdoor facilities had hundreds of sitting guests dining with families and friends. The open-faced sandwiches, or smørrebrød in Danish, was sold like hot cakes and even though the volunteers started preparing the sandwiches from seven in the morning, they were sold out within the first couple of hours of the opening at Saturday. But the church was not lacking anything despite the massive support from both locals and Danes:
A total of 1700 pieces of open-faced sandwiches, around 1500 apple-doughnuts (æbleskiver), 60 kilos of sausages for hotdogs, five kilos of remoulade-sauce, 11 beer kegs and a turnover of 120,000 dollars. These are some of the numbers the church could present after the bazaar had finished.
And the number of visitors is something a bit out of the ordinary. As Kirsten Eistrup, the Danish priest, was chatting with some of the visitors, she was delighted to see the support and a bit surprised how big it had become. 1939 people had paid a visit to the bazaar during the two days which is a quarter more than last year. The biggest fare the church has had in at least five years.
Guests from far and near
Danish, German, French, Chinese, English and Singlish were being spoken in every corner of the premise and the bazaar has become a bit of an attraction for local Singaporeans. A few years ago, a radio station announced the bazaar and some Singaporean websites mentions the bazaar as a must-see attraction.
“There is no doubt that our Christmas Bazaar is highly rated among Singaporeans and the concept of hygge is also known here in Singapore. This is about the good atmosphere, gathering, hygge and the smell of freshly baked cookies and genuine Christmas trees – something a lot of locals find amazing,” says Kirsten and adding that they wouldn’t be able to make it this big if it wasn’t for all the different nationalities visiting the bazaar.
A group of young Singaporeans had made their way to the church and tried æbleskiver for the first time. The look on their faces was unmistakable; they loved it. At another table Marion Lee from Singapore and Ion Moscrop from Britain had showed up. Eager to mingle with the people around them, they had visited the bazaar out of curiosity since they’d heard good things about it from Danish friends.
A special thanks to all the volunteers
Servicing the many guests required a whole lot of volunteers. More precisely around 70 volunteers had
put in an enormous effort to make all this happen. Some even started preparing for the bazaar this summer.
“A huge thanks to all the volunteers. I simply don’t know what we would have done without the help from them. We wouldn’t have had a Christmas Bazaar without them and probably not even a church if not for them,“ Kirsten addressed.
If you didn’t get the chance to visit the bazaar this year or if you simply want more Christmas decorations there are still an opportunity to do so. Christmas decorations, Advent candles and other things can be bought in the church until Christmas Eve.
