Traditional religion
Gods and spirits
Yapese mythology shares many commonalities with Chuukic mythology, though the direction of diffusion is unknown. The Yapese creation myth starts with the god ''Gavur li yel yel'' creating the four layers of cosmos, the dark unnamed tier where ''Gavur li yel yel'' resides, the sky layer, the earth, and the underworld beneath the sea. He used his hands and dirt to create the chief god ''Yanolop'', who in turn used his mind (''mam'') to create five other sky deities, four male and one female. The female deity, ''Matsugulop'', mates with the male deities and they create another generation of sky gods. Different accounts credit ''Gavur li yel yel'' or ''Yanolop'' for creating ''Solal'', the god of the world-under-the-sea. ''Gavur li yel yel'' then creates five gods of the world-under-the-sea, four male and one female. Like the first generation of sky gods, the gods of the world-under-the-sea marry and inter-marry to create new generations of gods. ''Yälfaath'' the Elder, a member of the first generation of sky gods, is regarded as the creator of the human race. He used his hands and dirt to create the first man and woman, named Ganan and Nik. He created another couple using the same method the next day, but then decided it would be faster to give the humans sexual organs to allow them to reproduce by themselves.Human soul
Traditional Yapese belief holds that each living person has two souls; one that lives (''yaan ni fos'') and one that dies (''yaan ni yam''). At death, the soul-that-lives wanders the earth while the soul-that-dies gets eaten by the sky god Lug and a friend. A ritual prayer and incantation (''ma’log'') induces the soul to a place called Gatsam where it can stay or go to heaven. Those who choose to go to heaven must first offer money to the guard ''Rumang'' and pass his judgment. They then enter into ''Yanolop''s clubhouse, where ''Yanolop'' separates the spirits he considers "bad" (for example, those with disease, or women who die during childbirth) from those he considers "good". People of different classes go to different places in heaven. For example, the souls of warriors who die in battle, women who die during childbirth, and fishermen who die at sea all go to their own places in the afterlife.Ritual calendar
The initiation into eating ranks in the district of Rull starts with the lunar month ''Monyibwuo''. The next month, ''Wagaeygaey'', the Yapese prepare by planting yam gardens. People from Rull spend the next month ''Tafgif'' cleaning their yards and graves. They also place food offerings on graves, which is later eaten by people of Gitam. ''Makan'' is a sacred month on Yap which starts with the disappearance of the constellation Pleiades. Eating class initiates spend this time in fasting, seclusion, and learning. The priests of Pemgoy and Alog gather at a shrine of Rull. For the month's last ten days, a magician divines for the eating class and its initiates by burning bundles of material. On the last month of this calendar, ''Rir'', the initiates are welcomed as new members of the eating class. They then prepare a feast for visitors of the district who come from southern Yap.Taboo system
Traditional Yapese religious beliefs emphasize a ritual of taboo which includes eating practices, female seclusion, and death customs.Purity
In Yapese culture, the universe is viewed in semantic opposition of various elements and beings; such as the land vs. the sea, spirits vs. humans, or male vs. female. Since the land is viewed as the domain of the male spirits, women must maintain good relations with these spirits to grow food for their family. Similarly, the sea is viewed as the domain of the female spirits, so fishermen must maintain good relations with these spirits to achieve success. Ritual purity (''tabgul'') is in opposition to profane impurity (''ta’ay''). People and things that are considered impure must be isolated from those that are considered pure to remove contamination. While the sea is pure, the land is impure, and the village is considered neutral, or the bridge between these two worlds. Spirits are considered pure, while humans are impure. Men are pure, and women are impure. The level of pureness can vary; for example, female spirits are purer than male spirits. Newborn children are considered very polluted and become less polluted as they grow up. When a girl reaches puberty and starts menstruating, she returns to her newborn polluted state until she stops menstruating during pregnancy.Food
Eating customs include certain classes (''yoogum'') of male non-serfs who are supposed to eat together. Women and children who violate the taboo face punishment from the gods. New members of these eating classes must undergo an initiation ritual (''dowach''). ''Yoogum'' members hold a feast each year. Prepared food has to be distinguished between these classes, separated for the men, the women and children, and the menstruating daughters. Boys over the age of ten live and eat in the village's young men's house and menstruating girls have to eat in a separate house. In the main house, older males eat separately from the women and younger children. Restrictions on food and cooking practices in modern Yap are followed by less than 30 percent of Yapese households.Female seclusion
Young Yapese women are secluded during menstruation. During pregnancy, a ''tamaarong'' priest would routinely visit and pray for the expectant mother. The ''tamaarong'' would also assist the mother in giving birth by calling for the child to come out. Afterward, the mother and child would go to theDeath
Death customs among the Yapese focus on defilement of the living by proximity to the dead. After death in Yapese culture, the bodies are cleaned, rubbed withModern religions
Traditional religious practices and ceremonies in Yap have mostly been forgotten, although most of the people still hold animistic beliefs concerning spirits and magic. The Catholicism is the unifying force in modern Yapese culture, though Protestant and other Christian sects have small congregations.Statistics
Catholicism
Christianity first arrived in Yap when the steamship ''Manila'', carrying six Capuchin missionaries, arrived on June 29, 1886. The missionaries gave gifts to the locals and set up a school to teach the children about writing in Spanish, geography, and arithmetic. In February 1887, around 31 Yapese locals were baptized. However, the Capuchin missionaries struggled to learn theProtestantism
The first Protestant missionaries on Yap were key advisers on a Bible translation project, Johannes Aigesiil and Gottfried Ngdiramedelemang. In 1952, the Church of Palau sent them to serve on Yap. They encouraged lay Bible study, irritating the Catholic Church. Edmund Kalau and his wife joined Aigesiil and his wife to travel to Yap in 1959. As part of an effort to fight alcoholism on Yap, Kalau helped construct a youth center. A part of the Kalaus' missionary work in Micronesia involved ferrying sick people to district hospitals on the mainland. They established the Pacific Missionary Aviation (PMA) in 1974 to provide faster transportation to the people of Micronesia. This strained the Kalaus' relation with the Liebenzell Mission and they eventually severed ties.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
In 1977, Charles Keliikipi organizedSeventh-day Adventist Church
The Yap Seventh-day Adventist School opened in 1987 as an elementary school and expanded into aExternal links
References
{{reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite book , title=Yap State Census Report: 2000 FSM Census of Population and Housing , url=http://www.pacificweb.org/DOCS/fsm/Yap2000Census/2000%20Yap%20Census%20Report_Final.pdf , date=December 2002 , publisher=Government of the Federated States of Micronesia , pages=53–55 {{cite book , last1=Dobbin , first1=Jay , title=Summoning the Powers Beyond: Traditional Religions in Micronesia , date=2011 , publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press , location=Honolulu, HI , isbn=9780824832032 {{cite book , last=Garrett , first=John , title=Where Nets Were Cast: Christianity in Oceania since World War II , date=1997 , publisher=Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific , location=Suva, Fiji , isbn=982-02-0121-7 {{cite journal , last1=Lingenfelter , first1=Sherwood G. , title=Emic Structure and Decision-Making in Yap , journal=Ethnology , date=October 1977 , volume=16 , issue=4 , pages=331 , doi=10.2307/3773261 , jstor=3773261 {{cite book , last1=Lingenfelter , first1=Sherwood Galen , title=Yap: Political Leadership and Culture Change in an Island Society , date=1975 , publisher=University Press of Hawaii , location=Honolulu , isbn=0824803019 , url-access=registration , url=https://archive.org/details/yappoliticallead0000ling {{cite web , last=Hezel , first=Francis X. , url=http://www.micsem.org/pubs/books/catholic/yap/ , title=The Catholic Church Yap , date=2003 , publisher=Micronesian Seminar , accessdate=August 25, 2016