CHRISTMAS EVE AT TEMPLE SQUARE

You can say what you want about the LDS church, but they know how to put on a great Christmas light show.  We were out in Utah again this Christmas to visit our son Jeff and family and spent part of Christmas Eve at the Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City to take in the light show.  I don't know  the number of lights used to decorate the square; my best guess would be in the hundreds of thousands.  It had snowed earlier in the week, but the weather on Christmas Eve was fairly mild (low 30s) and calm, nearly idea for walking around the grounds, along with thousands of other visitors.

Here, first are a few photos of the lights on the trees around the Temple itself.

I find it difficult to capture the lights in isolation from the larger context.  In the first two shots I wanted to pose the lit trees against the Temple, which was itself awash in light.  In this last shot I was intent on posing the lights against the trunk and limbs of the tree.  The tree lacked symmetry and the street lamp just to the right of the tree detracts a bit from the effect.  Still OK, I thought.

Soon after we arrived we came across this choir singing carols.  A nice touch.

One of the more interesting buildings on the 35-acre temple grounds is the Assembly Hall, which was also nicely lit.

The Mormon Tabernacle is an unusual, elliptical building, which, by reason of its shape, has amazing acoustic properties.  The interior is even more unusual than the exterior, as the shallow-domed ceiling is extremely plain, as seen in this shot of the facility's enormous pipe organ.

Here is a closer shot of the pipe organ, showing the choir loft on either side.

The temple itself has a very dramatic exterior.  (Admission to the Temple is limited to only certain important members of the church, so I have little idea of the appearance of the interior.)  

 

The temple also features a beautiful reflecting pool, featuring a nativity sculpture.

Bei's parents were with us, and I took this shot of them with lights as a backdrop.

Finally is a nice shot of Jeff and Stanley, enjoying the show.

John