HIVE meetup: Jovial Visitation Social

Several years ago, ARCH-HIVE-ite, musician, and Provo Music Magazine editor Zach Collier and his friends began creating new traditions for an important Mormon holiday: the Jovial Visitation. If you’ve never heard of the Jovial Visitation before, that’s because Zach’s friends made up the name themselves. What they didn’t make up is the event. Moroni’s four visits to Joseph Smith the night of September 21st, 1823 (and the morning of September 22nd), and the subsequent visits on the 21st of September the following three years, leading at last to the delivery of the gold plates to Joseph on September 21st, 1827, and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.

These events all began with Joseph praying for forgiveness because he considered himself “guilty of levity, and sometimes associat[ing] with jovial company.” Rather than offer him absolution, the angel who arrived gave him a job: to retrieve and translate the record of the slow self-destruction of the angel’s people, the pious but not always righteous Nephites, with God’s warnings to modern humanity, but also a message of hope about the possibility of healing and redemption.

This message certainly feels like one worth celebrating. In the traditions established by Zach and Co, the Jovial Visitation is commemorated with a three course meal and the exchange of gifts on the night of the 21st of September. The accounts of each of Moroni’s three nighttime visits are read between courses, and then, the following morning, those celebrating read the account of the fourth visit on the morning of September 22nd, and then open their gifts, in imitation of Joseph’s first visit to see the gold plates.

This year, we’re celebrating a little differently, with a mix and mingle social at Writ & Vision Fine Art and Rare Books. You’ll be able to peruse J. Kirk Richard’s magnificent Book of Mormon paintings, enjoy angelic refreshments, groove to the sounds of HIVE DJ MSLD, and raffle off some excellent Book of Mormon themed gifts for you to take home and enjoy on the 22nd. We hope you’ll join us this year, and remember the 21st of September for the rest of your lives!