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The theme "Rejoice in Christ" is announced at a media event for the Salt Lake Temple Celebration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. (Courtesy Intellectual Reserve)

Intellectual Reserve

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The Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the morning of Tuesday, September 1, 2026. (Courtesy Intellectual Reserve)

Intellectual Reserve

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Journalists attend a media event in the West Temple Entrance Building of the Salt Lake Temple for the Salt Lake Temple Celebration on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. This is the first time the media has been invited inside the newly completed structure. Access to the full temple will be part of the Salt Lake Temple Celebration in 2027. (Courtesy Intellectual Reserve)

Intellectual Reserve

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opened Tuesday reservations for next year’s Salt Lake Temple open house tours — and they proved to be in high demand. 

The church said Wednesday that 1 million spaces were reserved for the free tours within the first 24 hours of availability. No more tickets are available for now, but additional inventory will open in the coming months. 

The temple’s long-awaited reopening celebration, which follows extensive renovations to reinforce the building’s structure, will take place from April 5 to Oct. 1, 2027, and is expected by church leaders to bring in visitors from around the world. The theme for the event will be “Rejoice in Christ,” the church announced at a Temple Square event Tuesday. 

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and chair of the Salt Lake Temple Executive Committee said the church expects 5 million visitors next year. 

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a global church with a universal message of Jesus Christ in which we rejoice,” Uchtdorf said. “We’re so grateful that we’re here in a community where we’re welcome. We invite you to come and see and love Jesus Christ and the people who come here.”

Speakers at Tuesday’s event highlighted the historical significance of the Salt Lake Temple, which took 40 years to build, beginning in 1853 and dedicated in 1893. Uchtdorf said the pioneers selected the temple’s location just two days after they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. 

“Why would they arrive at a place in the desert, more or less, and again focus on the house of the Lord? Because they rejoiced in Christ and knew that Jesus Christ is the foundation in our lives,” he said. 

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox honored the early settlers who established the community and “made the wilderness blossom as the rose.” He said the temple is a historic building in the lens of westward migration and a point of interest for people of faith. 

“A place where people come every year and never get a chance to enter that building, and yet they come anyway to see it,” Cox said. “One of the top tourist attractions in the state of Utah, one of the top tourist attractions anywhere in the United States to see a building that you can’t even go inside of, and finally, they all get to go inside and see what this is all about, and see what has happened on this space.”

Future releases of open house tickets will be made through TempleSquare.org and the Temple Square app.