Dozens of places of worship in and around Montreal opened their doors this weekend for citizens to have a chance to check out a part of the city's heritage, and the religious art and architecture within.
The government of Quebec set aside $15 million for projects such Religious Heritage Days through the Religious Heritage Council, who want to preserve and share Quebec religious art, instruments and heritage.
"We don't know our religious heritage," said Joanne Picard, project leader at the council. "We need to be tourists in our own town to know what we have. So it's really a good opportunity as we're going to be welcomed to these places that tell the history of the city with its different cultures and religious traditions."
The council opened 28 churches last year for the weekend in its initial year, and this year there are 70 religious sites open.
Vijay Kanthan is president of the Hindu Thiru Murugan Temple in DDO, and is one of eight faiths participating in the open door weekend.
"Canada is a multicultural society, so each community has to know what the other community is doing," he said. "It's a people living in harmony so we go synagogues, we go to churches, we go to mosques, (and) likewise we welcome others to come and see what is happening in our temple also."
The temple will welcome guests for tours Sunday.
Visitors to sites such as Westmount Park United Church will get to see the biggest collection of Kelsey windows even if some of them have lost a bit of their glow.
"The church was built in 1929, and some of the windows are showing their age," said pastor Neil Whitehouse. "Now they're sort of curved and in on place Jesus is losing his head."
