Pioneer Day

Today is Pioneer Day, a state holiday here in Utah. It also happens to be Jenny's birthday. Unfortunately, I didn't get the day off work, and instead had to watch kids slip-n-slide down one of the hills in Sugarhouse Park from my office.

After work, I met up with Jenny, the Millers, and Sameera and walked around Liberty Park, where the main festivities were happening. Today is probably the one and only day I regret living a half block from the Park. It's been really loud all night and last night. Fireworks are going off right now, but live bands have also been playing all day (although I was at work for most of the day). And there's a TON of people - which is good that they are all walking around and biking. But a lot of them also drove, so there's a lot of traffic and a lot of cars parked around the neighborhood.

So I gathered from talking to a few different people, that there's not one exact explanation for what Pioneer Day is. One guy, who has lived in Utah his entire life, thought that it was a holiday celebrating Utah becoming a state. However, that's not what it is. Roughly, it is the day Brigham Young arrived in Salt Lake and declared near what is currently the University of Utah, "This is the right place!" However, Young was not the first Mormon to arrive in the Valley.