Our stake put on a little Pioneer Day concert at the DC temple visitors center (Pioneer Day being a Utah holiday and a sort-of Mormon holiday--marking the date when Mormon pioneers first entered and claimed the Salt Lake Valley in 1847), and they asked our Primary and a neighboring ward's Primary to dress up and sing some pioneer songs. It was fun to have my mom there, since our parents don't generally get to see when our kids perform in little things like this.
It was very cute. And the first time I've participated in anything pioneer-related since we moved to the east coast--after all, the east coast was where the pioneers were leaving from. Why would we celebrate being left? As a born-and-bred westerner though, I do enjoy Pioneer Day. And any excuse to dress up in my dirndl and call it a pioneer dress.
The concept of pioneers is very important to Mormons. Granted, it's murky since the pioneers took the land from the native people already living there. :/ Not to mention some big clashes with the US government in later years, and big clashes with (non-Mormon) citizens in their own neighborhoods in earlier years. Accounts of these kinds of events in the nineteenth-century American West often surprise me with their gory details of defense, retaliation, and even massacre. I think this article from the Gospel Topics page on lds.org is illuminating:
"Peace and Violence among 19th-century Latter-day Saints"
But in general--politics, wars, and other sins aside--a pioneer is someone charting new territory, someone whom future generations revere. I added these (not so gory) links in an email to Primary parents (yes, I am still the Primary chorister):
For more about Pioneer Day and modern-day pioneers, I liked these resources from lds.org:
-List of stories for children about pioneers: https://www.lds.org/children/resources/topics/pioneers
-"Pioneers in Every Land": http://history.lds.org/section/pioneers?lang=eng
-"Modern-Day Pioneers": https://www.lds.org/pages/modern-day-pioneers?lang=eng
-"Mormons Celebrate Their Pioneer Heritage": http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/mormons-celebrate-their-pioneer-heritage
A great performance - thinking about the pioneers and reflecting on their efforts is a good activity!
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