Tradition-Part I

With all the beautiful snow that has painted the Utah valley, as I sit shivering with my feet in several pairs of slippers and hot cocoa between my hands, I've been missing Palau more than ever. I really miss the warm humid weather and the warm water that surrounds the islands. Something else that has made me think back to my experiences in Palau are the traditions and customs that different religions and families embrace during the holidays. Palau is a culture full of tradition, or custom as they call it. Some of the customs are really fun, and other customs people dread being a part of. Some Palauans go so far as to seek out spouses not of Palauan blood so as to escape some of the financial obligations and responsibilities of Palauan custom.

A little about Palauan customs:

Custom: Siukang. In Palau, there are many customs. When there iss a family obligation-it is a custom. Often, Palauan custom-siukang, refers primarily to those customs that entail financial obligations, often considerable, to family and friends. These include the following:

ocheraol: a custom on the occasion of the building of a house, but which can also help pay for a new boat or something else;

house party: a custom of much recent vintage for the building of a house or financing major repairs on a house;

chebechiil: marriage;

ngasech: the traditional ceremony held in honor of the first born child.

kemeldiil: the wake at the death of someone;

sis: a traditional ceremony held four days after the death that involves food offerings to the spirit of the deceased;

omengades: a ceremony traditionally held nine days after death in which stones are placed on the grave;

cheldecheduch: held some months after the death to settle the debts and funeral expenses and to make other settlements between the families of the deceased and his spouse.

All of these customs and traditions required days and sometimes weeks of preparation. The women of the clan/family-wife, daughters, sisters, cousing, aunts, grandmothers, second cousins, third cousins, etc.etc.etc. were expected to be assembled preparing traditional palaun food (some meals literally take ALL DAY to prepare). The men of the clan were in charge of fishing. This would require fishing excursions that started at 4am until 3am the following day. Coming home to rest and then going out again that evening and staying out all night.


Our friend Brray Oiemei was having a goodbye party (he was joining the US army) and I had gone over to help with the food preparation. The fish was to be prepared for boiling by being wrapped in a banana leaf and then tied with bamboo string in a very particular manner.


Tapioca had to be cut, boiled, and hand pressed through the device you can see me using. I don't remember what they call it, but it reminds me of what we use to make homemade pasta with. It is very old and hard to turn, and if you have wimpy arms like mine-they will hurt for DAYS after. Once all the tapicoa is pressed through, you from the tapioca into hamburger shapes for putting on the fire.


After grinding the tapioca, you have to literally burn it over a fire. It must be black! It's supposed to taste better that way. Once it is blackened, you mix it up with alot of white sugar and then put it through the press again!


After it has gone through the press you cut it into inch long pieces and after placing it on a plate, pour hand squeezed coconut milk over it.


This is what it looks like when done. It is quite yummy!


While I enjoyed being a part of this tradition, it took all day to make this particular Palauan meal. Palauans are required to participate in customs requiring even more work than this day did, sometimes two to three times a month.

The young women would sometimes explain to me that they would have to miss church, or an activity because of custom. I admit I was a little unsympathetic at these times when I'd respond by saying, "well, as members of The Church of Jesus Christ, we have a custom too. It's called Church!" To this they would usually just laugh at me, bless their hearts, but this really put me to thinking about my lifestyle as a follower of Christ and as an American, and an individual. I'm reminded of my ponderings especially at this time of year, with the air full of traditions...

What traditions do I follow and incorporate into my life?

To be continued....