Pioneer Day

Pioneer Day this year is on Sunday. I’m going to celebrate proactively.  I don’t mean literally spend the night on the street to secure a good seat for the Parade. I mean study the trek itself. Instead of feeling sorry for the hardships the Saints went through, I choose to learn from their struggles and achievements. Though I don’t have to “trek” across the country, I see and encounter many of the same situations they experienced. How did they cope with loss, fatigue, hunger? What gave them the strength to walk all day and still be able to dance at night? How were they able to get along with their travel companions, especially knowing that once they arrive in the Valley these same people will be their neighbors.

Empowered through their trek experience, I choose to travel through hardship dancing. I choose to get along with my travel companions and be excited knowing they will still be with me after I arrive at my destination. With this attitude I see why this particular parade is a huge celebration of accomplishment. But it has been a trial to even keep the parade going.

Brigham Young led the first company of pioneers into the Great Salt Lake Valley on 24 July 1847. In 1849, they commemorated their arrival at the site of a future temple. Brigham Young led a procession from his home to Temple Square. Under the bowery, Young presided over a devotional full of both religious reverence and zeal. The celebration ended with a thanksgiving feast for a bountiful harvest and the blessings of a merciful God.


From these obscure but auspicious beginnings, Pioneer Day has grown into one of the largest regional celebrations in the United States. Pioneer Day was celebrated as a birthday, an independence day, and a thanksgiving day for the Latter-day Saint people. Celebrations include parades, devotionals, sporting events, feasts, dances, excursions, and reunions. The following historical vignettes define the varied meanings of Pioneer Day.


In 1857:

Several thousand Mormons gathered in the mountains east of Salt Lake City for the 10th anniversary of their arrival. What started as the largest and most exuberant public displays of Mormonism to date ended when the celebrants became aware of the approach of Johnston's Army, which initiated the tense but essentially non-violent Utah War.


During the subsequent "federal occupation" of Utah, Pioneer Day was celebrated little, if at all. Once the tension had subsided, however, the Mormons renewed celebrating their heritage. The observance of Pioneer Day expanded as the Mormon Culture Region filled the Intermountain West.

1880:

Mormons commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Church’s formal organization. Tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints in hundreds of communities participated in this jubilee, which was as enthusiastic a celebration as the Mormons had ever created.

 

1886:
The following years saw anti-polygamy persecutions. Pioneer Day celebrations were subdued during this period. The 1886 celebration was particularly poignant. The tabernacle on Temple Square was draped in black, as for a funeral, and pioneers and church leaders who were in hiding or prison for "unlawful cohabitation" were eulogized for their devotion to the cause.

1897:
Jubilantly, the Mormons celebrated not only the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers, but also the completion of the Salt Lake Temple, Utah statehood, and the end of anti-polygamy persecutions.

Pioneer Days 1946

29 Palms, CA

In the twentieth century, Pioneer Day increasingly reflected the growing cultural diversity. To Mormons, the celebration brings to mind the pioneers of 1847. To the society as a whole, the day honors the building of the society by “pioneers” of many eras and backgrounds.

 1966 - Murray, UT

1969 - Mapleton, UT

 1977 - Spokane, WA

 

Thanks mom, for keeping us involved in this event every year. Now I understand that the Day’s of ’47 Parade is more than a walk downtown in pioneer clothes surrounded by bands. I cherish the celebration and sharing with others the gratitude for strong determination.