July in Christmas

As most of you already know, this week I received my copies of the issue of Latter-day Saint Historical Studies with my Pioneer Day article in it. Latter-day Saint Historical Studies is published by Ensign Peak Foundation, an independent organization. Unfortunately, their website doesn't appear to be updated very often, so I'm not sure how people will get access to my article or the latest issue, outside of going to a library. This is my magnum opus so far, so I thought I would share some of the events that led up to its publication.

Most of the issue is about the Church in Hong Kong, so my article seems a little out of place.

Growing up, I was aware of Pioneer Day, but it wasn't one of my officially canonized holidays. However, I did find this journal entry when I was six years old, where I doodled a firework, an American flag, and Utah, so I was aware of what it was about.

When I was a teenager, I would see American flags at Pioneer Day, and I would wonder why, since the pioneers arrived in Mexico. And if American symbols were unacceptable, then there really weren't a lot of decorations or iconography for the holiday, which makes it hard to really observe it in the way I observe other holidays.

In 2013, I was working at BYU Studies on a book about the Tabernacle, and I got a clue that the pioneers might have used American flags in Pioneer Day. So I vowed that if I learned that the pioneers themselves used American symbols in their Pioneer Day festivities, then I would find such imagery acceptable, and I would add it to my canon.

Then in 2014 and 2015, I was looking up information for footnotes for a documentary history about the first decade of settlement in the Salt Lake Valley, including a footnote about Pioneer Day. And I learned that at the very first Twenty-Fourth of July celebration in 1849, they raised a giant American flag and read the Declaration of Independence. So American symbols are totally appropriate for Pioneer Day—especially since there are American flags and an eagle on our (former) state flag. So it became part of my holiday canon in 2015. 

My observance of Pioneer Day is basically a three-week extension of the Fourth of July and a time to focus on Utah history more broadly (even though January is Utah History Month).

In June 2018, while visiting Plymouth, MA, I bought the book Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday. It was fascinating and blew my mind.

Then, after I finished that book, on the Fourth of July, I thought, "The next book I read should be on the history of Pioneer Day." But because of my previous research, I knew there wasn't a book. There were some articles, but no entire books. I thought, "Someone should write a book about it. And that someone could be me."

So I began doing research and compiling information, planning on this book. In June 2019, I was talking with some colleagues, and they suggested I start with an article, then do a book later. An article is much more manageable. During that same period, I decided to apply to grad school, and I thought grad school would make me better qualified to write this history.

I submitted it to a journal in August 2021, and they rejected it pretty quickly. (I later learned from other people that that editor has been rejecting a lot of submissions, so I need not feel personally attacked.)

So I submitted it to another journal, and they asked me to revise and resubmit. (Their suggestions were really important and worthwhile.) I was in the middle of grad school, so it wasn't a priority at the moment. I finally resubmitted it last year—and they rejected it. They said it was well done, but it wasn't a good fit for them. And as I've seen the things they have been publishing lately, I tend to agree with them.

So then I submitted to LDSHS. One of their reviewers suggested accepting it but didn't offer any suggestions. Another reviewer also recommended accepting it, with a few suggestions. They accepted it for publication in May this year.

In September, the editor sent me her edits, so I had to go through and review them, most of which I agreed with. They really made it a better article. I had a very busy September!

And now it's out. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out. But I haven't re-read it. It always makes me uncomfortable to read my writing once it's out in the world. (I have been celebrating by eating some of the Utah-themed foods I like to consume around Pioneer Day, with a Christmas twist.)

Maybe one day I will still make it into a book. But that sounds like a lot of work. I want to see how my article is received before I work on expanding my research.

But I do love reading books about the history of holidays. I have read two on the history of Halloween and one on the history of St. Patrick's Day. I have read a book about the first fifty years of the Fourth of July and another about the second fifty years, which were both important context for Pioneer Day. And I've read a book about the fourth-century origins of Christmas, and I'm currently making my way through a book about Christmas in America. And I have a two-volume encyclopedia of articles about various American holidays. It would be fun to add a book of my own to the literature.

I didn't like history in high school and college, because it was all about wars and politics. If that's your jam, great, but I find it boring. Now that I know cultural history is a thing, I actually love history. I think about my former obsession with terrible 1960s sitcoms. There were a few reasons for that, but I can't help but think that part of it was there was a budding historian in me who was interested in old things.

That Thanksgiving book really changed my life. It led me to research Pioneer Day, which was one of a few factors that inspired me to get a master's in history, which in turn has led me to a couple of history jobs.

When I tell people I work in history, sometimes they start going off about how much they love cursive handwriting, and they're sad to see it go.

No. I hate cursive. I'm very glad I can read it, but I hope no one ever writes in it again. I have been transcribing this week with my Church job, and I very much feel this way. So many cursive words are just a series of bumps, and they can be easily misread. For example:

• This says Books, not Porks.
• This says Spirit of God, not Spine of God. 

• This says Iatan, not Satan. 
  
  
  
• This says Bro Perris. 

  

  
  

What a horrible writing system!

I hope this will just be the beginning. My article really is the most comprehensive history anyone has ever written on the topic. There was an article about Pioneer Day as celebrated in the nineteenth century, but mine also covers the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and my section about the nineteenth century is more expansive. There was a dissertation that brought in more stuff from the twentieth century, but it was more a folklore study than a history. And both of those articles were written in the 1990s, so I had more access to digitized sources. All this is to say that I genuinely believe I know more about Pioneer Day than anyone else on the planet at this point.