Manti Pageant
The last year of the Manti Pageant.
The church announced that they were not going to put on big pageants anymore, so I got reservations at a Manti campground so we could go watch the pageant one last time. I reserved a tent site too for Nate and Siara.
I invited mom to come along too. We took our tent and set it up for Nate and Siara next to the RV, then we went and got dinner. I wanted to try their famous barbecue turkey dinner that the stakes served every year, but the line was really long so we got delicious Navajo tacos and the food truck court. Then we went and got handicap parking and ate our dinner.
While eating I found out that Siara and Nate were bringing Corvo and that he peed, pooped, and threw up all over their camping bedding. Siara thinks he was car sick. That wasn’t the only problem: a pet couldn’t be left unattended at the RV park and pets weren’t allowed on the temple grounds, so they wouldn’t be able to go to the pageant. They decided to turn around and go home. I was sad they missed the pageant. The kids would have liked it.
The handicap parking had golf carts taking people to the pageant. Mom and I went and got seats up front. John came later. My back hurt really bad sitting for over 5 hours.
The pageant had lots of volunteers. 1000 people were performers. Some came out to mingle with the audience before the show.
While watching the show I realized, as good as it was, it was out of date. They were still using an original overly dramatized recording with a lot of flowery language. The focus wasn’t on the spirit, so I was a little disappointed. But, since it was their last year, I’m sure they didn’t want to make major changes.
It was a little chilly and windy, and it poured rain earlier, but the weather calmed down when the pageant started. I liked the way they did the different scenes. Rooms from Joseph Smith’s home were behind rocks that slid over. The Savior floated down on a crane, and the man’s spirit came up from where he died all white and glowing. The Manti temple doesn’t have a statue of Moroni on it, but during the pageant a person representing the angel Moroni was standing on the spire of the temple with his robes blowing in the wind. And lastly the choir of angels dancing on the hill for the finale was my favorite part.
We only stayed one night and then headed home, but I would have liked to have explored the area more.
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