Why does Utah have a second holiday in July, and why does it have all these names? Here’s what you need to know.
The Days of '47 Royalty, second attendant Arianna Haner, Queen Sophia Lowry first attendant Adelyn Eisenach, in the Days of '47 Parade in Salt Lake City, on Friday, July 23, 2021.How confused are newcomers to Utah about Pioneer Day?
When James Bennett came to Utah from Mesa, Ariz., 22 years ago, he “had no idea July 24 was a holiday.” He had moved here to work at a grocery store at 200 South and 400 East in Salt Lake City. “I remembered a story about when Karl Malone was first brought in to play for the Jazz, it was his birthday and he thought the parade was for him,” Bennett said. “So I’m, like, ‘Yeah, we’ll get mail today … because it’s in honor of Karl Malone, because he’s the Mailman. Utah decided to celebrate our greatest basketball treasure by having the mail delivered in his honor on a day we normally wouldn’t get it.
• Not the day that Brigham Young, then the leader of the Latter-day Saints, and his party first saw the Salt Lake Valley — that was July 21, 1847, while Young & Co. were still in the mountains. There is a large “This Is the Place” monument east of Sunnyside Avenue at the mouth of Emigration Canyon, commemorating the arrival of Brigham Young in the Salt Lake Valley.That’s several hundred yards northeast of the huge monument — marked by a 10-foot-tall, white obelisk., a Utah State Park. It’ll cost you $15.95 to get in — $13.95 for people 65 or older, and $11.95 for kids 3-11.
That’s because July 24 is a Sunday, and — owing to the state’s predominant religion — we don’t do big celebrations on the sabbath. In 1976, when Americans in the other 49 states were celebrating the nation’s bicentennial on the Fourth of July, Utah’s official observancesThis year’s parade is set for Saturday, July 23, but it will still be a three-day holiday for most of us, who’ll get Monday off.
This year, the Days of ‘47 Parade begins Saturday, July 23, at 9 a.m. Floats, bands, horses begin at the intersection of South Temple and State Street; travel one block east on South Temple; turn south and go nine blocks south on 200 East; turn east on 900 South; and travel four blocks to 600 East, the entrance to Liberty Park.
And one thing you can be almost sure of is that it will be hot at the parade. According to the National Weather Service, the average high temperature on July 24 is 96. The average high on July 23 is also 96.
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