Comments on: Latter-day Saint Images, 1936 (2)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:14:30 +0000

I’ve collecting some good material on how the Primary taught the May dances and about the May festivals in general — kick me into gear for pulling that together for a post for the upcoming May Day!

By: Rachelle

Rachelle — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:52:57 +0000

My child’s elementary school did the Maypole last year, I haven’t heard of them doing it this year. I did the Maypole back in the 1970s, as did every fifth grader in my elementary school, every year, it was a highlight. We called it the May festival. My community kept many of the traditions alive that were originally done on a ward or stake level until correlation changed that. Now that we, who were very young then, are getting older, the traditions are disappearing, too.

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 01:30:28 +0000

Maybe the graduation ceremonies at Joaquin School in Provo were a vestige of the May Day celebrations shown in these photographs. Every year the sixth grade girls danced the Maypole–my sister sadly missed out on that glorious experience because we moved after fifth grade and the new school (which really was new–it was the first year Rock Canyon Elementary School was open) did not carry on the tradition. I have no idea what the pagan antecedents of dancing the Maypole might have been–or whether that pole symbolized something that we children would have been completly innocent of back in those days before the sexual revolution–but it was all fun and light-hearted–girls in pastel dresses weaving their crepe streamers around the pole.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:42:02 +0000

All over the Church, apparently, wherever there were children and youth groups. There are reports of whole programs, as well as songs and costumes and instructions for dances and patterns for Maypoles. That seemed to have lasted into the early post-war years.

By: charlene

charlene — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:44:30 +0000

I didn’t realize that Beltane was such a prominent celebration on the Mormon calendar.

By: Tom O.

Tom O. — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:25:04 +0000

Oh, to have an outdoor Gospel Doctrine class….in Hawaii, no less.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:55:11 +0000

Total threadjack, but speaking of the TIB, anybody else had the chance to use the new indexing app on their smartphones? Pretty slick, and probably worth a post of its own, comparing that to the old records extraction program.

By: kevinf

kevinf — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:53:06 +0000

Once again the specter of war hangs over these pictures, with so many Saints in Germany featured in this.

I also remember the Temple Index Bureau from my first attempts at my four generation group sheets as a young married. I remember the notation “TIB” next to the ordinances listed on copies I got from my parents of their family group sheets, meaning that they were recorded and verified there. By that time, though, I think most of that had been converted to microfilm; however, that may just have been my perception. At least they didn’t give everybody a key to the card files and blank cards to add whatever they wanted in those days. (Grumbles inwardly at newfamilysearchwikithingy.)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:49:04 +0000

Those card catalogs were the New Family Search database of that day. Clerks had typed or handwritten an index card for every ordinance performed in every temple as far back as they had records. Before a name was cleared for proxy work in 1936, one of these clerks checked to see whether work had previously been done for that person. Incredible labors, from our point of view.

By: Gary Bergera

Gary Bergera — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:16:25 +0000

Thanks again, Ardis. These posts are always revelatory.