TWO ROSARIES

 

One of the noble traits of the traditional culture of the past, still practiced by many, is the great care we had for each other, especially in the family.

No grandmother needed to be put in a senior home, nor care givers hired for her, because the family members themselves took care of her.

No grandchild needed to be sent to a daycare, since grandma or grand aunt was home all day to care for the children.

This care for family members extended beyond death. With most being Catholic, most Chamorro families pray for their dead, believing that our prayers help the souls of our departed while being cleansed in Purgatory.

Just as we pray a novena (a period of nine days, from the Latin word novem meaning the number "nine") to celebrate a saint's feast and ask for blessings from heaven, we also pray a novena of rosaries for the deceased. But not just one; traditionally there were two sets of rosaries to be prayed for the dead.

LISÅYON LINAHYAN

The first set of rosaries is when the general public comes and prays. It is called the LISÅYON LINAHYAN, meaning, the Rosary of the Assembly. Linahyan can mean "crowd, multitude, congregation, assembly." Everyone and anyone can come and join this rosary.

RIGHT AWAY. It begins, in most cases, on the day of death. If the person dies way past sunset, it will begin the following day. Not only was the rosary begun as soon as possible, burial also happened quickly in the old days. Before the war, there was no place to hold the body in cold storage, so burial had to happen quickly, usually within 24 hours.

NOON AND EVENING. In the old days, two rosaries were prayed during these first nine days. The first was at noon. Anyone could attend it, but typically most people waited till the second rosary, which was prayed at night, often at 8PM in the old days. So the noon rosary was a smaller affair, involving mainly the family members and older friends of the deceased who didn't have work or farm obligations.

PRIVATE HOME. The rosary was prayed at a private residence, typically the home where the deceased lived. Sometimes the rosary was held in another home, but within the family, when, for example, the deceased's house was not suitable to hold a rosary either because of problems with the house, or lack of outdoor space for the crowds or remoteness of location.

Because of the large numbers of people, most attendees sat outside, and a tent or canopy was sometimes opened over them. Long before we had folding chairs, wooden benches were more available in the old days and many times people just stood.

REFRESHMENTS. Unlike modern times when full meals were often served every night, in the prewar days refreshments were simple. It was often as simple as one kind of breadstuff (broas, buñuelos, roskete) but there was always mamå'un passed around (pugua', pupulu, åfok, amåska or betel nut, pepper leaf, lime chalk and chewing tobacco). Pastries were touch and go but mamå'un was always offered.

FINAKPO'. The end of the nine nights of public rosary was celebrated with a big meal. Before the war, this is when the pig was slaughtered, or even a cow depending on the family.

LISÅYON GUMA'

But a second set of nine nights of rosary was prayed for the deceased immediately after the first nine nights. But, this time, it was only for the "immediate" family, "immediate" in the Chamorro sense, not American sense. The "immediate" family in our own culture means siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, in-laws. That could be 50 people right there.

This second set of rosaries was called the LISÅYON GUMA' or LISÅYON HALOM GUMA'. This means the House Rosary or Rosary Inside the House, making a distinction between the rosary to which the LINAHYAN (Multitude) was invited and the rosary to which only those inside the home (Halom Guma') came.

It couldn't be called the Lisåyon Familia (Family Rosary) because, in Chamorro mentality, "family" means anyone even distantly related. Now we're back to 400 people at the rosary.

Halom Guma' showed that this rosary was meant for family members more closely linked to the deceased, the ones living in the same home as the deceased. But, a sibling or close cousin living in another home wasn't excluded, either.

SLOWLY DYING

Rosary for the dead is not disappearing, but it certainly is changing and in some cases is disappearing.

The second set of rosaries, the Lisåyon Guma', is definitely not practiced by a growing number of families. The first nine nights was enough for them, they feel.

The noon rosary has also fallen into disuse in many families.

The majority of families now have the rosary at church, rather than their homes. This lightens the burden for the family in some ways, but it involves an additional cost (paying the church for power usage) and it passes on some difficulties to the parish (tying up use of the church, wear and tear of the building, trash issues).

Since most families use the church and have the deceased remembered at the Mass right before or after the rosary, some families decided to skip the rosary altogether and just have a "rosary" of Masses, that is, nine nights of Masses for the deceased.

Another big change is language. It's getting harder to find a techa (prayer leader) to lead in Chamorro, and many families don't want it in Chamorro anymore.

In the 1970s and 80s, even the poorest of families tried their best to put on a good meal for nine nights. Today, even the wealthiest of families skip refreshments altogether, without even water or iced tea.

There are many factors involved in these changes. Some people say they have too many rosaries to go to. Some nights, one family has to vacate the church immediately so that another family can start theirs. Some pastors try to get two families to have one rosary for both deceased. They usually are not successful in convincing them. Families are getting smaller over the years, and the burden of feeding 200 people every night falls on fewer family members now, compared to the bigger families of the past. And there are more reasons why our rosaries for the dead are not what they used to be in many cases.

I predict we will see more of these changes in the years to come, till only a small number of more traditionally-rooted families practice most of the old customs.