BIBA SAN JOSE!

This year, the parish of Saint Joseph in Inarajan was able to celebrate its patronal feast on the actual feast day, March 19.  As usual, the festal Mass and procession were celebrated on Saturday afternoon, followed by dinner for all who attended, hosted by the parish.  This feast was very popular on Guam before World War II when many people from Hagåtña traveled to Inarajan to spend a few days and nights with friends and relatives for this feast.  Anticipation of this feast was generated seven Sundays prior to March 19 with the observance of the Siete na Damenggon San Jose (the Seven Sundays of Saint Joseph), a devotion prayed by the faithful.  The focus of this devotion was on the men, who took Saint Joseph as a role model.

On March 19, the Church looks specifically on Saint Joseph as the Patron Saint of the Universal Church; hence the Chamorro title Patrosinio for this particular feast.

The image of Saint Joseph is carried in procession on an åndas.  A karosa is another mode of carrying a statue, but on wheels.  If the statue is carried on a pallet on the shoulders of the bearers, it's an åndas.  Both terms were borrowed from the Spanish (andas; carroza).

Notice how our people need to touch and feel.  Hands instinctively reach out to make physical contact.  Children are raised to reach the statue.

I noticed many people from all over the island drive down south for the fiesta.  Before the war, travel to Inarajan was not a quick trip like ours was tonight, driving from the friary in Agaña Heights to Inarajan in just 40 minutes.  Back then, one really was a taotao tumano', a person journeying over the land (tåno').  The food served after the fiesta is the na' taotao tumano', the food for those journeying by land (pilgrims).

The carving station at the Inarajan fiesta.  Well, one of them anyway!  There were several.