ALABADO SEA

 

The Chamorro hymn U MA GEF TUNA, which is usually sung at the end of all devotions, is based on a Spanish hymn titled ALABADO SEA.

The hymn honors the Blessed Sacrament and the Immaculate Conception. The Blessed Sacrament means the True Body of Jesus and the Immaculate Conception refers to the fact that God prevented Original Sin from touching Mary from the very first moment of her existence or conception in the womb of her mother Saint Ann.

All of this was taught to our mañaina (elders) hundreds of years ago by the Spanish missionaries. Prayers and hymns were taught to them in Chamorro but also in Spanish. In Saipan, they still sing this hymn in the original Spanish, as well as in Chamorro.

Here is a Saipan family singing it at the end of their Christmas novena :

LYRICS

Alabado sea el Santísimo Sacramento del altar

(Praised be the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar)

y la Inmaculada Concepción de la Virgen María, madre de Dios

(and the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, mother of God)

concebida sin mancha del pecado original

(conceived without the stain of original sin)

y en el primer instante de su ser por siempre jamás. Amén.

(and in the first moment of her existence and forever. Amen.)

Here's the musical notation 

The little boy in the video is folding his hands while the Alabado is being sung. This was the custom whenever the Alabado or Umageftuna was sung, and we had to sing it on our knees, too.

VERSIÓN ESPAÑOLA

por Manuel Rodríguez

El himno chamorro U MA GEF TUNA, que suele cantarse al final de todas las devociones, se basa en un himno español titulado ALABADO SEA.

El himno honra al Santísimo Sacramento y a la Inmaculada Concepción. El Santísimo Sacramento significa el Cuerpo Verdadero de Jesús y la Inmaculada Concepción se refiere a que Dios impidió que el Pecado Original tocara a María desde el primer momento de su existencia o concepción en el vientre de su madre, Santa Ana.

Todo esto fue enseñado a nuestros mañaina (ancianos) hace cientos de años por los misioneros españoles. Se les enseñaron oraciones e himnos en chamorro, pero también en español. En Saipán, todavía cantan este himno en el español original, así como en chamorro.

Aquí está una familia de Saipán cantándolo al final de su novena de Navidad.

HINENGGEN I MAN ÅMKO' : MEAT ON LENTEN FRIDAYS

 

Yanggen chumocho hao kåtne an Kuaresma na Bietnes, siempre ma hågga' i katne.

If you eat meat on a Lenten Friday, the meat will surely turn bloody.

Well, that's what some mañaina (elders) told us to scare us when we were tempted to break the rules of Lent and eat meat on a Friday in Lent.

Even though the rule applied to only those 14 years old and up, most parents and grandparents applied the rule even to the small children!

Well who wants a mouthful of blood?

So the threat that the meat, no matter how well-cooked it was, will fill your mouth with blood was enough to scare some children from eating meat on a Lenten Friday.

ESTORIAN MARIA REAGAN

 

THE CHAPEL

A Catholic chapel stands in Chalan Laulau in Saipan, and it's all due to the strong faith of a Carolinian woman with an unusual name. She was Maria Reagan. Maria was Carolinian, but her surname Reagan was not. It's Irish.

John Edward Reagan was an American from New York who somehow ended up in Saipan in the 1880s. He probably came on a whaler or perhaps a commercial vessel. We don't know if John Edward was born in New York or in Ireland, but he was certainly of Irish blood.

He, like a few other Caucasians, liked what he saw in Saipan and stayed, marrying a Carolinian woman named Joaquina Kileleman. Their first child, a daughter named Engracia, was born in 1889. María and other offspring came later.

SPANISH PRIEST FR ANICETO IBÁÑEZ

teaching Carolinian children the Catholic religion

Saipan was still under the Spaniards then, and the Catholic faith the only religion publicly allowed. But no one was forced to convert to Catholicism. Many Carolinians embraced the faith, and little by little everyone eventually became Catholic. Joaquina, by her first name alone, shows that she had been baptized and given a Christian name, and was Catholic.

A descendant of John Edward Reagan, Malua Peter, shares how devout Maria Reagan was.

Here is a summary in English of what Malua shared :

Tan Maria is the sister of Malua's grandmother. She was the daughter of Edward Reagan and she had very fair skin. Before the war, the family would walk from Chalan Kanoa to Chalan Laulau and pray the rosary every day. This continued after the war. Then we built a chapel there in Chalan Laulau. Right after the war there were only two churches, Chalan Kanoa and Tanapag. From 2 o'clock in the morning we wake up and we pack our things and we walk to the church. We sleep outdoors on canvas that we spread out on the ground and wait for whatever priest will come along to say Mass around 4 o'clock. Some weekends we walk to Tapochao. We also had special Masses for Holy Week. Tan Maria taught us about our obligations to God, to always pray. We began to pray the rosary in Chalan Laulau, first to Our Lady of Fatima and then it changed to the Immaculate Conception. The story's not so clear but Tan Maria saw something in the chapel and that's why we changed it to the Immaculate Conception. 

Tan Maria was very devoted to the Blessed Mother. You only saw her face and her hands because she always covered her head with a shawl or veil. She wore the brown Franciscan garment and the koreas (blessed leather belt of the Augustinians). 

She grew corn and she would share it with the family and we would eat it off the cob. 

When we were kids, we had English comics. They probably came from her father's family in the US. 

Tan Maria would take me to the dentist in Chalan Kanoa and tell me stories of the Blessed Mother as we walked. 

This chapel in Chalan Laulau (Limeiyóól) in Saipan is part of the legacy Tan María gave her family

THE TIDY TAOTAOMO'NA

 

Siempre hao nina'manman yanggen un li'e' este na lugåt annai guaha siha åcho' latte.

(You will certainly be amazed if you see this place where there are latte stones.)

Man gaige siha gi apattao na lugåt, tåya' guma', tåya' chålan. Mappot ma hanaogue este na lugåt.

(They are in an isolated place, no homes, no streets. It's a difficult place to get to.)

Puro ha' nette, chå'guan yan trongko siha gi uriya.

(It's all swordgrass, grass and trees in the surrounding area.)

Lao ti un fañodda' chå'guan annai man gaige i acho' latte. Man måtai ha' i cha'guan annai man gaige i acho' latte.

(But you won't find grass where the latte stones are. The grass is simply dead where the latte stones are.)

Ya ti siña un ålok na sa' pot guaha taotao man måtto ya man ma gatcha' i cha'guan na man måtai, sa' håssan taotao guihe na lugåt.

(And you can't say that it's because people go there and step on the grass that it's dead, because few people go to that place.)

I taotaomo'na ha' muna' taiguennao.

(It's the taotaomo'na who make it that way.)

So it was said to me by an old-timer about a certain location which I won't disclose, so that the latte stones there may be preserved in its current state.

The traditional Chamorro belief is to avoid latte sites anyway.

The taotaomo'na live around latte stones, and it's best not to irritate the taotaomo'na by bad behavior, and only God knows what a certain taotaomo'na might consider bad behavior, so better to avoid the place completely. An upset taotaomo'na will make you sick or at least bruise you. Yelling, urinating and physically disturbing the place are all obviously bad behavior, but some have been punished by taotaomo'na for less than these, and some people claim they were extremely careful and yet were still punished.

Some people may look at the place and come up with a natural explanation for the dry and lifeless ground immediately surrounding the latte stones. Perhaps the tree cover blocks out the sun.

But, upon seeing the place, I must say enough sun and rain water could make the ground more grassy and green.

But you will never convince the old-timer I talked to that it's anything other than the taotaomo'na who keep the area immediately around "their" latte stones clear of tall grass. The taotaomo'na here like to be tidy.

Perhaps the taotaomo'na want a big enough clear space so they can meet and even have their dances, as has been claimed by some people long ago.