page_title: Endowment (Mormonism)
section_title: Previous Latter Day Saint endowments
hierarchical_section_title: Endowment (Mormonism) / Previous Latter Day Saint endowments
caption_attribution_description: English: "62. The Endowment, tail-piece", by "Fay &amp; Cox, 15 Nassau St., N.Y." An illustration of clothing reported to have been worn by female members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as part of an Endowment ceremony, circa 1870s. The dagger in her hand is NOT a part of her clothing.
context_page_description: In Mormonism, the endowment is an ordinance designed to prepare participants to become kings, queens, priests, and priestesses in the afterlife. As part of the ceremony, participants take part in a scripted reenactment of the Biblical creation and fall of Adam and Eve. The ceremony includes a symbolic washing and anointing, and receipt of a "new name" which they are not to reveal to others except at a certain part in the ceremony, and the receipt of the temple garment, which Mormons then are expected to wear under their clothing day and night throughout their life. Participants are taught symbolic gestures and passwords considered necessary to pass by angels guarding the way to heaven, and are instructed not to reveal them to others. As practiced today in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the endowment also consists of a series of covenants that participants make, such as a covenant of consecration to the LDS Church. All LDS Church members who choose to serve as missionaries or participate in a celestial marriage in a temple must first complete the endowment ceremony.
context_section_description: The meaning and scope of the term endowment evolved during the early Latter Day Saint movement, of which Mormonism is a part. The term derives from the Authorized King James Version, referring to the spiritual gifts given the disciples of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, in which they were "endowed with power from on high,"] Christians generally understand this endowment to refer to the gift of the Holy Spirit, which the Latter Day Saints believe is given at the Confirmation ceremony. In 1831, however, Smith began teaching that the elders of the church needed to be further "endowed with power from on high" in order to be effective proselytizers.
  He therefore gathered the elders together at a General Conference in June 1831 and "endowed" them with this power by ordaining them to the High Priesthood.
  By the mid-1830s, Smith was teaching that a further endowment was necessary, this time requiring the completion of the Kirtland Temple as a house of God where God could pour out his Holy Spirit. Upon the completion of the Kirtland Temple after three years of construction (1833–1836), the elders of the church gathered for this second promised endowment in early 1836. The Kirtland endowment included a ritual ceremony involving preparatory washings and anointings with oil, followed by a gathering in the temple in which many reported spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues and visions.
caption: Woman's endowment clothing circa the 1870s, from an illustration in Mark Twain's Roughing It.
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