Traditions abound in the Latter-day Saint culture. The extent is realized when church members try explaining LDS jargon like Elder's Quorum President, the ward menu and a stake center.

The word "tradition" comes from the Latin root "traditio" which mean the action of handing over.

Just like any other aspect of LDS culture, General Conference has developed specific traditions. Here is a sampling from BYU students and faculty members of traditions they enjoy:

"Sunday morning, we always have Swedish pancakes," said Professor Charles Wilkes of religious education. "Saturday night I go to priesthood with my boys and then we always go out to eat afterwards. For us it's a great family time. We gather and eat a lot of good stuff."

Myles England went on a mission to Trinidad. The missionaries there have developed their own tradition.

"I went on my mission to the Caribbean," England said. "All the missionaries would gather together to watch General Conference. In between Saturday morning and afternoon sessions we would walk down to TGI Friday's. Then we would go back and get dessert before priesthood."

While all the men are at the priesthood session, the women have found that the time is ideal to do something special without any guys around.

"During the priesthood session, we would go and have a girl's night out," said Calista Perazzo, a junior studying history teaching. "We would go shopping and afterwards have amazing ice cream sundaes."

Not all traditions are based on food. Tyler Gardner, a junior studying English, describes a method his parents discovered to get him and his siblings to listen during conference.

"All the kids would make up lists of key words in conference," Gardner said. "When we heard those words, we would put a tally next to them. At the end we would count up the tallies and get a penny for each. We would all compete to see who got the most at the end. "

One year, Tyler got clever about this game.

"I put 'Amen' on the list. I was able to hear everyone in the conference center," he said. "So I was able to put a bunch of tallies."

Gardner was only allowed to tally as long as the speaker was up. Even with that limitation, he was able to "rake in" $6-8 per conference.

mstoutenburg@byu.net

Copyright Brigham Young University 1 Oct 2008