Hafa Adai! As part of my commitment to continue to share cultural poems relating to our beautiful island of Guam and its people, here’s Korasón Poem #44 titled Belen. Enjoy!

Belen

During Christmas time,
I’m reminded of the belen* or nativity scene
That my family and I worked hard to put together,
Yet with gentle care.
In preparation, we would go out to the deep jungle
In our village of Malesso
And pick the moss a certain way,
So that we could create
Our very own special little town of Bethlehem
That would be displayed for days.
We would carefully decorate
Our belen with the Niño, Mary, Joseph
But that’s not all –
There were also the shepard, manger animals;
Not too mention the drummer boys, angels
And, of course, the three kings
To add that special touch of a glorious nativity scene.

When our belen was set up
We were all set to go
For I knew we were ready to begin praying the novena*
And sing songs for nine days.
And though the years have gone by, I’m happy to say
That our tradition
Of building the belen and praying the novena remains.
© mnrivera and ltgumataotao

*belen: nativity scene
*novena: nine-day series of prayer
*Niño: statue of the baby Jesus

Source: Our Native Daughters’ Reflection of Guam and Its People by Dr. Matilda Naputi Rivera and Lois Taitano Gumataotao