Northern Virginia Pagan Pride Day

Mark your calendars and join us Third Annual 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 open to the public. The goal of these events is to bring non-pagans together with pagans to explore what paganism is, as well as to bring together pagans with other pagans in the area.
Some things to look forward for at the 2009 NoVa PPD:

1. 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.

2. Public Rituals: The cornerstone of Pagan Pride Day is a public religious ceremony so that the community can come together to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox. We would need ample open space for this public ritual, and we estimate that 20 to 50 people would participate.

3. Workshops: Not only do we seek to educate the public about what paganism is, we also seek to educate ourselves. We will offer several workshops on a variety of topics throughout the day, bringing in volunteer presenters and speakers.

4. Merchant Booths: We invite local new age and metaphysical stores as well as local groups to set up booths at this event. Many of these booths would sell merchandise.

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.

6. Music: Several local artists will showcase their talent for you to enjoy.

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 worshipping 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.