Religion in Yap
[1]: 142 Yälfaath the Elder, a member of the first generation of sky gods, is regarded as the creator of the human race.
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.
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.
For the month's last ten days, a magician divines for the eating class and its initiates by burning bundles of material.
[1]: 160–162 Traditional Yapese religious beliefs emphasize a ritual of taboo which includes eating practices, female seclusion, and death customs.
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.
[1]: 153–154 Prepared food has to be distinguished between these classes, separated for the men, the women and children, and the menstruating daughters.
[3] Restrictions on food and cooking practices in modern Yap are followed by less than 30 percent of Yapese households.
Afterward, the mother and child would go to the menstruation hut and the father would take a rest holiday for as long as the tamaarong advised.
A special tamaarong performs a ritual during this time which is believed to send the deceased spirit to Gatsam.
[1]: 155 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.
The missionaries gave gifts to the locals and set up a school to teach the children about writing in Spanish, geography, and arithmetic.
However, the Capuchin missionaries struggled to learn the Yapese language and many of the locals held on to their traditional beliefs.
However, the Japanese government responded to the people's requests for priests and sent Spanish Jesuits to pick up where past missionaries had let off.
One Jesuit missionary, Bernardo Espriella, made three proselyting trips to the outer islands of Yap from 1928 to 1932.
Mission efforts to indigenize the Catholic Church on Yap started during this time, and six Yapese deacons were ordained in 1975.
[6]: 59 The first Protestant missionaries on Yap were key advisers on a Bible translation project, Johannes Aigesiil and Gottfried Ngdiramedelemang.
[8] As part of an effort to fight alcoholism on Yap, Kalau helped construct a youth center.
[9] 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.
[8]: 306 In 1977, Charles Keliikipi organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Yap.
[14] On November 18, 2009, Kirsten Elisabeth Wolcott, a Seventh-day Adventist student missionary on Yap, was stabbed to death while on a morning jog.
