'What a show!' Church president exclaims
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They came to sing, dance and cheer.
And 42,000 youth of the Church from the Utah Salt Lake City Area did so frequently and exuberantly July 16 during their "Day of Celebration" event marking this 200th anniversary year since the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith and 175 years since the restoration of the gospel.
It was the largest of half a dozen such celebrations in Utah that have occurred or will occur, the others being in St. George on July 8, Cedar City and Logan on July 15, Ogden on July 16 and Provo on Aug. 6. (See coverage in this Church News edition.) Other commemorations have occurred in wide-ranging locales around the world, some of which have been covered in previous issues of Church News.
All three members of the First Presidency attended the Salt Lake City event, as did some members of the Quorum of the Twelve and of the Seventy. President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke.
Augmented by 8,000 adult leaders, the youth filled the stands and field of Rice-Eccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus — scene of the major ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics — for the event. From among them, a choir of 16,000 yellow-T-shirted singers filled the entire north end of the massive stadium and performed several selections, some of them new works or arrangements composed expressly for this event. As they sang the opening anthem, "Shout for Joy," 2,400 flag carriers — 14 from each of the 178 stakes in the area — streamed onto the field bearing banners that formed a rainbow-spectrum of color.
Thousands of dancers took the field at different points in the program. Some Beehive-age young women performed a "ribbon dance" with long white streamers to a song called "Joy in the Journey." Later, young men and young women of teacher and Mia Maid age performed a hip hop routine to a song, "Call Home," portraying the importance of frequent prayer to Heavenly Father. This segued into a quiet ensemble with vocalist, violin, cello and harp on a song called "Still Small Voice."
A Crawford Gates arrangement of the well-known hymn "Joseph's First Prayer" was sung by the choir as Ben Craven's portrayed the young Joseph Smith. And Laurel- and priest-age couple dancers did a routine to a Clive Romney arrangement of "Praise to the Man," which reflected the melody's old-world roots.
A group of drummers and dancers from the Salt Lake Tongan and Salt Lake Tongan South stakes led hundreds of deacon-age youth in a traditional New Zealand Maori chant called the haka, in which participants stamp their feet, slap their arms and legs, move their bodies and shout in a show of strength and conviction. They chanted, "We are able, we are noble, we witness of the truth!"
In a scarfing stunt, all members of the audience were instructed in using scarves of red, yellow and blue to make "wave" effects around the gigantic stadium and such messages as "Joseph's 200th," "Follow the Prophet" and "Choose light." "You are part of a big picture, and what you do really counts," said Winn Egan, who conducted the stunt. "You are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
"What a show!" President Hinckley exclaimed. "You do justice to the Prophet Joseph, who liked to have fun.
"I hope," he said, "that you will never forget the grand festival which you have had this night, that the memory of it will remain with you throughout your lives and be a reminder of the great and sacred obligations which you have as members of the Church."
In a finale, President Hinckley handed wands of light to narrators Brad Robbins and Jennifer Bybee, symbolizing the light of the gospel. He challenged them "and every person who is here this evening to find that light and share it with others across this broad world, and as you do, you will find joy in the long journey of your great lives."
The narrators then walked across the field. As they did so, audience members ignited light wands that had been provided to them, until the entire darkened stadium was aglow with waving fibers of light. The choir performed the Mack Wilberg arrangement of "The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning" as an army of missionaries from the two area missions marched onto the field.
E-mail to: rscott@desnews.com
