Cultural Night Tradition- Mormon Pioneer Heritage

July 24th is the anniversary of the Mormon Pioneers crossing into the Salt Lake Valley.  In Utah this is a state holiday and there is a huge parade and fireworks.  As we get further and further from Utah, I feared that my kids would not know of their Pioneer ancestry and heritage so our cultural night tradition was the perfect way to re-introduce this.  Here is what we did for the night:

Guests: Benham family

Food: Velvet Chicken Soup, Hashbrowns, corn, Sweedish Jam cake

https://www.lds.org/ensign/1972/07/a-melting-pot-of-pioneer-recipes?lang=eng&_r=1

Music: Mormon Tabernacle Choir Hymns

Geography: Map of the journey to the Utah Valley

Animals: Google search of High Desert animals

Architecture: Famous Utah Buildings; State Capitol, Salt Lake City Temple, old Pioneer homes, Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Lion House

Heritage Tale: The Miracle of the Crickets

http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Seagulls,_Miracle_of

Famous People: Discussion of Brigham Young, Porter Rockwell, our Pioneer ancestors 

Pioneer Games: We played hide and seek, duck duck goose, hopscotch

Pioneer Clothing: We talked about the practicality of good walking shoes, hats, and bandannas