Mormon Traditions

Latter-day Saints adhere to several traditions in order to live an ethical, faith-filled lifestyle. They believe that through their faith and observance of church laws they will receive eternal life in heaven after death.

Families also observe traditional values and health habits as part of their “plan of salvation”, including adhering to all divinely mandated commands, keeping Sabbath holy, and undertaking good deeds.

Sacred Space

Sacred spaces play an essential part of religious traditions. They serve as places where God makes Himself manifest most fully; examples include the Tabernacle in the wilderness, Temple in Jerusalem and synagogues where Jesus taught.

Sacred spaces are typically defined by rituals performed at or directed towards specific locations, which mark them as holy and distinguish them from other defined spaces while drawing attention to forms, objects, or actions in that space.

Sacred space often includes symbols that represent fundamental components of reality as understood by religious communities, define a life according to those beliefs, and establish access between human life and divine realities. At Wat Haripunjaya in Thailand, for example, the walls of its monastic complex (vihara) are decorated with paintings depicting previous lives of Buddha as well as moral values embodied in them.

Home Dedications

Mormons are well known for the many rituals performed within their temples, with perhaps none more prominent than that of an endowment ceremony involving faith and dedication from both parties involved.

At its heart, an endowment means keeping one’s newfound blessing forever. Regarding initiation rites themselves, simply ask one or more family elders to perform these acts on your behalf.

For more information on the endowment, visit the official temple website and watch their video about it here. While this site can be lengthy to navigate through, its depth of content makes it worth your while; you’ll discover tons of helpful facts about temples, Mormons and church history while discovering numerous links leading to other interesting websites.

Funerals

Funerals in Mormon traditions serve two functions. First, they honor and commemorate the deceased while secondly they give members an opportunity to share the message of the church with non-members.

Mormon culture reveres death as a passageway into eternal life with God, with mourners praying that their loved one will meet up again in heaven with family and friends in an afterlife reunion.

Mormon burial practices typically involve interment as opposed to cremation as Mormons believe a corpse “returns” to its mother earth when left buried.

Burial services typically take place in a gravesite selected by the deceased and dedicated by someone with Melchizedek priesthood – typically one of his or her closest family members or an individual holding this priesthood – who leads prayers before officially dedicating it as the final resting place for the dead.

Mourning

Mourning is an integral component of faith, but Mormons often have their own special way of commemorating the loss of loved ones. Their funeral traditions combine honor with comfort from friends and family in times of grieving.

Death, in their view, marks the separation of soul from body; eventually they believe it will reunite again. At death, their spirit is judged; those who lived good lives go straight to paradise while those who didn’t will enter some sort of purgatory where they’ll live their remaining days in fear of God.

These customs provide comfort to families as well as mourners by reminding them that their loved one will eventually join them again in heaven. Additionally, it gives mourners an opportunity to say their final farewells.