Northern Virginia Pagan Pride Day

Pagan Pride Day is an event that is held in many cities and areas all over the world. These events are always free open to the public. The goal of this event is to bring non-pagans together with pagans to educate people about paganism in hopes of reducing prejudice against our culture. It also aims to bring together pagans with other pagans in the area to strengthen our community. The 2009 Northern Virginia Pagan Pride Day will serve the Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, Fauquier, and Stafford.

There are several parts to this event:

1. Picnic in the Park: Bring your own picnic lunch to the park! There are no tables or grills. Cold sandwiches are the best.

2. Food Drive: Attendees are encouraged to bring a non-perishable canned food donation for a local non-profit organization. We seek to share our abundant harvest with those in need.

3. Public Ritual: The cornerstone of Pagan Pride Day is a public religious ceremony so that the community can come together to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox.

4. Workshops: Not only do we seek to educate the public about what paganism is, we also seek to educate ourselves.

5. Local Group Tables: We invite local groups from all over the area to represent their groups and share information about themselves with the community.

8. Door Prizes: All you have to do is show up. Everyone gets one raffle ticket upon arrival. Community members have donated several items to be given away as door prizes each hour in a show of appreciate for your community support.

The Pagan Pride Project is a non-profit organization with the goal of promoting the pagan identity through education, activism, charity, and community. This organization works on the international, national, regional, and local levels, and is the eleventh year.

The Pagan Pride Project attempts to define paganism:

• Practicing religion that focuses on earth based spirituality; and/or
• Focusing religious or spiritual attention primarily on the Divine Feminine; and/or
• Honoring, revering, or worshiping a Deity or Deities found in pre-Christian, classical, aboriginal, or tribal mythology; and/or
• Practicing religion or spirituality based upon shamanism, shamanic, or magical practices; and/or
• Creating new religion based on past Pagan religions and/or futuristic views of society, community, and/or ecology.

For more information about the Pagan Pride Project:
http://paganpride.org