The Atlantic

Mormons’ Weekly Family Ritual Is an Antidote to Fast-Paced Living

Family home evening—regular time set aside for praying and playing—has taken on new relevance a century after it was conceived.
Source: Carlo Prearo / EyeEm / Getty

Every Monday evening, Mormons around the world pause, as families. Together they pray, sing, play games, eat snacks. This is all standard fare for many American households, but the difference is that for Mormons, it’s built into every Monday night (or sometimes another night) and it has an official, deceptively generic-sounding name: family home evening.

The weekly gathering is far more than a family game night. Vern Bengtson, a sociologist who ran a major study of at-home religious practices that spanned nearly four decades, family home evening one of “the most successful

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