![]() Nearly all stores and businesses are closed. Today Tongans reverence the Sabbath-willingly. ![]() Tradition says that he committed the islands of Tonga to God by scooping up a handful of soil and lifting it heavenward in prayer. Christianity began to take root here with the August 1831 baptism by Wesleyan missionaries of Taufa‘ahau, who became King George Tupou I. Similar scenes of preparation are repeated in tens of thousands of Tongan homes each week, for in Tonga keeping the Sabbath day holy is required by law. Yellow light from the setting sun streams through the gently rising smoke, silhouetting one of the boys tending the fire. They toss weeds and debris into a smoldering fire. Brother Uasila‘a, a stake patriarch and principal of Saineha High School, and some of his sons work in their taro field. Each wraps a taro leaf around meat mixed with coconut milk, then wraps it in a banana leaf to be cooked slowly overnight in an outdoor oven made of heated rocks covered by banana leaves. ![]() Inside, Sister Uasila‘a and her daughters prepare Sunday dinner. A child sweeps the steps as others clean up the yard. The setting sun shines through the freshly washed white shirts hanging on the clothesline and reflects off the lush green foliage surrounding the house. Samisoni and Meleane Uasila‘a, who have raised 20 children in addition to their own 12, are preparing for the Sabbath. It is late Saturday afternoon on the island of Vava‘u. ![]()
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