Today is a special day here in Utah, it is the day we come together as a community and celebrate our pioneer ancestors who settled here so many years ago. Children gather in the streets as they watch our biggest parade of the year. With floats, handcarts, horses, and wagons children cheer in excitement. This is a time for each of us to remember the great sacrifices they made as they continued on their journey west.
Without this annual celebration, many children may never have the opportunity to see a handcart. As parents this is a great teaching moment. Whether you have pioneer ancestors or not, it is important for children to know where they came from and how they got here. Living in America, we all have ancestors who immigrated here at some point. It wasn’t an easy journey. They couldn’t just hop in a plane the way we can today. It took preparation and planning. They had to make sacrifices in order to get here. It is so important to teach our children about these experiences so that they don’t take their freedom and the life they live for granted.
As a teenager in Utah, many of us are able to experience firsthand the hardships that our ancestors went through as they travelled here. Each of us clad in our aprons and bonnets have the opportunity to pull a handcart for miles along difficult terrain, just as our ancestors did all those years ago. While we will never be able to fully comprehend what they went through and the sacrifices they made, this experience helps us have a glimpse of that struggle. It helps us to gain empathy and to appreciate all that they did to give us the life we have today.
Find out about your own heritage and share it with your children. Having that connection to the past makes us more grateful for the present. We are so blessed to live in these modern times. How lucky we are to have had these ancestors there to pave the way!