Deseret
The word Deseret comes from the Book of Mormon , where it is translated as " honey bee ".
etymology
Since the Book of Mormon was written in “Reformed Egyptian” according to his self- testimony , attempts have been made to connect the word deseret with ancient Egyptian dšrt / dešeret /, which does not mean “bee”, but the “red crown” of the kings of Lower Egypt.
Symbolic meaning
A quote from the Book of Mormon is the starting point for beehive representations in Mormonism: “And they also took Deseret with them, that is, translated, a honey bee; and so they took swarms of bees with them as well as all sorts of things that were in the country, seeds of all kinds. ”The context makes it clear that it is about the departure for a land of promise - a land in which, according to biblical metaphors, milk and honey flows. In sermons from the 1850s, the bee colony represented the model society that they wanted to rebuild. The beehive motif can also be a takeover from the iconography of the city of Ithaca by the early Mormons who came from this area. Some Kirtland converts, especially Isaac Morley, were familiar with the writings of the social reformer Robert Owen , in which the bee colony was often used as a metaphor for a new economic system. After all, the beehive is also a Masonic symbol.
Deseret as territory
Brigham Young , president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , called the land in the Rocky Mountains that he and his followers inhabited the Deseret Territory . He wanted to symbolize that the hitherto barren land would flourish and be fertile if the inhabitants worked hard like honey bees. In July 1849, church leaders drafted a constitution for a future state of Deseret that they would propose to the US government. This state's borders should be Oregon to the north, the Green River to the east, Mexico to the south, and the Sierra Nevada to the west.
When Brigham Young was replaced as governor of the territory by Alfred Cumming as a result of the Utah War , the name was abolished because on the one hand it was perceived as too specifically Mormon and on the other hand it is too similar to the English word "desert". The territory was then named " Utah " after the resident Indian tribe of the Ute , which was transferred as the name to the state that later emerged from the territory.
Deseret as a logo
Deseret, the honey bee, is still reminiscent of the beehive in the coat of arms and flag of Utah and company names of companies mostly associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the major daily newspapers in Salt Lake City , the capital of Utah, is called Deseret News . The name is also used for the special Mormon alphabet, the Deseret alphabet .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Book of Mormon, Ether 2,3 .
- ↑ Art. Deseret. In: Encyclopedia of Mormonism , Macmillan New York 1992, digital edition Brigham Young University 2001, pp. 370f.
- ^ BYU Studies: The Symbolism of the Beehive in Latter-day Saint Tradition
- ^ Peter Crawley: The Constitution of the State of Deseret . In: BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 29: Iss. 4, Article 3.
- ^ Library of Congress: The State Formerly Known as Deseret .