Morning hadn't even broken when Adrian Navarro was being dressed for the Las Mañanitas serenade; hands other than his own put on his shoes and buttoned his shirt.

The 6-year-old spent most of the 1 1/2-hour service at Kalihi's St. John the Baptist Church, a celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe, slumped on his father's shoulder.

What else is a first-grader to do when church starts at 5 a.m.?

For dad Hermilo Navarro, Adrian wasn't too heavy, though the boy flopped from side to side and rolled around like a loose sack of potatoes in Navarro's lap in the dark before dawn.

This was a chance to introduce Adrian to the early morning Las Mañanitas, an Advent tradition in Navarro's native Mexico.

"He's not usually up this early," admitted Navarro, with a smile.

Las Mañanitas is a wee-hours serenade for the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was said to have appeared before the humble Juan Diego in Mexico in 1531.

"She came at a time when the Spaniards had conquered Mexico," Navarro said. "It was, for indigenous people, a symbol they could identify with."

As far as apparitions go, the Catholic church generally doesn't require its members to believe in them, but the sighting of Our Lady of Guadalupe is officially considered a "devotion," or an apparition worthy of belief. However, in 1999, a retired abbot who served at the Mexico City basilica where her image is enshrined, wrote a five-page letter to the Vatican saying the story might be false.

Nevertheless, the sighting of Our Lady of Guadalupe is as important politically as it was spiritually, explained the Rev. Jack Ryan.

The conquering Spaniards in Mexico believed the indigenous people had no souls — so Mary appearing to one of them proved that they were indeed worthy to be taught the ways of the church, and treated as equals.

Ryan inaugurated Las Mañanitas at St. John the Baptist after similar ceremonies on Maui and the Big Island drew hundreds.

"Every year it got bigger," Ryan said.

"Last year, the bishop came over for it. We did the Las Mañanitas at St. Michael's, then (evening) Mass at St. Benedict. (The bishop) showed up at 5 o'clock in the morning, which delighted the whole community. We had a nice celebration."

The service's early hour is a Mexican tradition, said Ryan, explaining that the congregation serenades Our Lady of Guadalupe, just as "on a girlfriend's birthday, you go to her house (in the early hours), to sing," said Ryan.

Ryan, a priest here for 18 years who before that led the Hispanic community in San Francisco, has been a witness to how the Mexican population in Hawai'i has morphed.

When Ryan started a Spanish-language Mass at St. Michael's in Kona, the 200-or-so participants were mostly coffee pickers or migrant workers, coming to Mass during the harvest season in late July or early August.

"When I'd look out at the congregation, it was almost all single, young guys," said Ryan. "They'd come here for six months to pick coffee, then go back.

"They started bringing families, so we started a religious education program in Spanish. About 98 percent were from Mexico; they got involved in hotels, restaurants, landscaping, construction. ...

"Now, when you have big occasions, we pack the place."

St. Michael's seats 350.

Las Mañanitas in Hawai'i began in earnest about a decade ago. Congregants asked Ryan to have a traditional 5 a.m. serenade, with hymns sung to the likeness of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

He agreed, with one caveat:

"You guys better show up," he told them.

So the morning of Our Lady of Guadalupe's feast day, Dec. 12, probably 1996, the priest arrived, turned on all the lights and started cooking the traditional Mexican hot chocolate.

At 5 a.m., the church was empty.

"At about 5 after, people started to come, and by 5:15, it was packed," said Ryan.

Before yesterday's Las Mañanitas, Ryan wondered if the O'ahu service might need a couple of years to get going. But the crowd at yesterday morning's event showed the serenading has commenced in a big way.

The inaugural morning Las Mañanitas drew more than 100 people, many in traditional costumes and shawls the colors of red and green apples.

St. John's has a different makeup, Ryan said, and its Hispanic ministry is led by a Columbian priest, the Rev. Albeiro Alvarez. "It's more varied in terms of countries people come from," said Ryan. "We even have a new family from Nicaragua."

Gabby Fabian said St. John's Hispanic ministry draws from a familiar well.

"Everybody knows everybody," she said.

As for Our Lady of Guadalupe, "Growing up, that's what my mom taught me," said Fabian, "to believe in her and her miracles."

During yesterday's Las Mañanitas service, the two priests, Ryan and Alvarez, read from scriptures and gave messages in mostly Spanish, with a smattering of English. Since this was a serenade, however, the highlight, of course, was the music.

The choir, many from the professional Mariachi Loco music group, took turns singing together and separately, all facing the right-hand corner of the church where the Our Lady of Guadalupe's image was festooned with bright flags and roses of all shapes and colors.

Ryan drew "oohs" of delight when he told the churchgoers that this year, Bishop Larry Silva was spending the day in Mexico with hundreds of thousands of other Guadalupe visitors.

Asked about it earlier, Silva said the trip was a long time coming, and the head of the Hawai'i diocese admitted he has a special affinity for Our Lady of Guadalupe.

"Over the years I've worked with the Hispanic community, I've seen their devotion and participated in many of their (celebrations)," Silva said last week.

During Silva's last appointment, his job was to combine two parishes into one. The name chosen for the newly constituted church? Our Lady of Guadalupe," whose story Silva calls moving and whose image is instructive.

Silva has visited Guadalupe several times before, though never for the feast day.

"I wanted to go this year and had some vacation time left," said Silva, adding it's the 475th anniversary of the appearance. "They tell me I'm crazy going on that day, but it's the way I want to go." Having been asked to celebrate the feast day here, he was torn about going to Mexico, but he felt "once in my life, I should go on the feast day."

It's hard to tell if Silva was missed in the crowd. After the service concluded, many churchgoers streamed out, obviously heading straight to work.

One of those was Jose Jalomo, who stopped in for the service before his construction job at Schofield Barracks.

"I feel very good when I come here," he said. "Especially in these days."

Others crossed over to the parish hall, where breakfast smells of bacon, sausage, waffles, pancakes, fried rice and doughnuts drew them in.

The Rodriguez children — Natalie, 9; Christian, 7; Darlene, 8; and mom Veronica holding Joshua, 1 — were among the first in line.

As Christian stabbed a mini-sausage with his fork, he began to tell the Guadalupe story — "she appeared to Juan Diego ..." he started to say.

Sister Darlene cut in: "And she takes care of all the Mexicans. And all the people. And she's a nice woman!"

It wasn't all Spanish speakers yesterday. Churchgoer Evelyn Balatico came for the cultural exchange, and stayed for the hot chocolate.

"Mmm," she said, putting down her cup. "It's got cinnamon and hot cocoa and marshmallows. It's almost like a mixed drink!"

Festivities were to continue on O'ahu with a 7 p.m. processional and Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On Maui, St. Theresa's in Kihei expected about 100 for a cultural dinner, mariachi music, a procession with the statue, a sacred dance and a 9 p.m. Mass, followed by singing of songs until midnight.