'Home night' introduced in 1915
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In 1915, President Joseph F. Smith and his counselors in the First Presidency inaugurated the family home evening program.
President Gordon B. Hinckley, who was born June 23, 1910, recalled his parents' response to the First Presidency's request that families gather at least once a week for a home night. His parents said, "The President of the Church has asked us to hold home night. So we're going to have home night."
President Hinckley remembers that the pronouncement was greeted with moans from the children, who weren't anxious to participate; but from that time on, the Hinckleys reserved one night a week for the family.
Typically, the parents gave a lesson and urged their children to perform. Such urging brought on smirks, guffaws and sometimes laughter. Because the children weren't natural performers, asking one of them to sing, President Hinckley said later in life, was "like asking ice cream to stay hard on the kitchen stove. It took us a long time to reach the point where we could sing together without giggling. It must have been disgusting to my parents the way we giggled."
The parents persisted. Soon, home evenings had a positive effect as the children listened to numerous faith-promoting stories and joined their parents in prayer. (See Sheri L. Dew, Go Forward With Faith, the Biography of Gordon B. Hinckley, p. 34.)
