The 2024 Macanese Encontro – a weeklong reunion between local and overseas Macanese – launched yesterday with an opening gala dinner at the Venetian, TDM reports.
Taking place until 6 December, the 2024 edition of the triennial gathering is the first Encontro to be staged since 2019, as the one that had been scheduled for 2022 had to be postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions. Encontro is the Portuguese word for “meeting.”
Approximately 1,400 members of the local and international Macanese community attended the gala dinner, which also welcomed high profile guests such as chief executive Ho Iat Seng and the executive vice chairman of Sands China Wilfred Wong.
“This event is first and foremost an expression of the Macanese community’s sense of belonging to Macao,” the president of the Council of Macanese Communities, José Luis de Sales Marques, said on the sidelines of the dinner.
“The future of Macao is our future, and we have a lot of hope for what we can do and continue to do with the younger generations.”
[See more: Peter McCleave brings his fight against cancer to Macao]
The president of Casa de Macau Australia, Rosanna da Silva Webb, who emigrated to Australia from Macao sixty years ago, made it clear that the Macanese community in Australia is intent on preserving its culture and history among its younger members. “The population is getting older, unfortunately,” she said. “But the young ones are coming through and we’re trying to develop programmes for the younger Macanese.”
She highlighted various ways that the organisation was safeguarding Macanese heritage, including organising functions and monthly lunches with Macanese food.
Another notable participant of Encontro is Peter McCleave, a Macanese cancer patient from the UK, who is not only tracing the heritage of his grandmother, Lucille Da’Costa, but is also hoping to encourage members of the community to assist in the cause of stem cell donation.
During Encontro, members of the Macanese community will take part in various events, including tours around the SAR and Hengqin, lectures, cultural sessions and a culinary competition.
First held in 1993, Encontro is now in its tenth edition this year. Globally, the population of Macanese people or those of Macanese descent totals at least 1.6 million, according to Roy Eric Xavier, the head of the Portuguese and Macanese Studies Project at the University of Berkeley.
