Pageantry

So, I feel like this post needs a preface. This pageant was hands-down one of the strangest things I've ever seen in my life. And I need to preface that by saying that I was brought up in the Mormon church until I was about 16. My family were converts, meaning that we don't have large, insular families of happy Mormons who are all directly descended from either Joseph Smith or Brigham Young. And so I sort of grew up hearing about these things like the Hill Cumorah pageant, and it was just a really strange experience of being there. Even though I've read the Book of Mormon and the Bible extensively, the play made little sense to me, and I can't imagine how an outsider would understand any of it.



First of all, it was a much larger event than I would have imagined. It was set up like a festival, with tents and booths for food, parking in a sodden field directed by young men in suits, while thousands sat in front of a large outdoor stage, clustering in camping chairs, holding umbrellas or donning plastic ponchos in the rain.

However, I think it was the protesters that really surprised me. I think as a kid, the event was always pitched to me as this really special, quiet gathering where people go to listen to a spiritual story, but when we drove up, the first thing I noticed were police cars, flares in the road, clouds of sulfur, and finally, amplified singing.
The other thing was that I'd never been to an event of conservatives arguing against other conservatives. The protesters in these images were against the LDS church, arguing that the Book of Mormon was a false religious book.


I'd love to spend more time photographing at this event, especially because it was a last minute decision to go and obviously, these pictures aren't terribly great. I wasn't able to get a flash or tripod (or a better camera for that matter), so I only had my dslr, which doesn't do so well in low light, plus it was raining and I got there right when it was really getting dark. However, I find the whole idea of pageantry and putting on a show to be really interesting, and I want to try to pursue this further.