The Annual Assumption Procession demonstrates the enthusiasm and dedication of our parish family, our reverence for Our Lady, and our desire to connect people from all cultures and walks of life in the Lower East Side and New York City.

Our vibrant community has a special connection to diverse groups of immigrants, past, present, and future. Transfiguration Church is a center of the life of the community of NYC’s Chinatown, Little Italy and the Lower East Side.

On November 1, 1950 (All Saints Day), Pope Pius XII declared the Assumption of Mary as a dogma revealed by God. One of the most important aspects of the dogma was to remind people to affirm the value human life. At the end of the Second World War, political, social and economic uncertainty brought anxi- ety, causing many people to lose faith and hope. In response to this situation, the Church hoped to reinvigorate and encourage believers by honoring Mary because her peace and love symbolize the enduring faith and hope that Jesus has brought to all.

Beginning as a way for Fujianese Catholic immigrants to express their faith and devotion in 1994, our Procession has grown over the years and has come to include five other local Catholic churches. Participants include Chinese from Hong Kong, Guangdong, Fuzhou, Wenzhou and Taiwan and those of other ethnicities and cultures such as Latin Americans, Filipinos, Koreans, and Europeans. Like many new immigrants, the Fujianese face the challenges of a new environment: their new lives in the United States with its religious free- dom enable them to express their reverence for Mary. Through the Assumption Procession, they bring to newer immigrants, and non-believers in the New York metropolitan area, a message of faith and hope.