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Pagan Pride is a movement among American pagans to build a positive public image of paganism. Local Pagan Pride groups sponsor "Pagan Pride Day" festivals, usually in public locations such as city parks or university campuses. The first recorded reference to "Pagan Pride" can be traced to 1992. [1]
The Pagan Pride Project is an organization whose aims are to promote understanding of paganism, support various charities, and bring pagan communities closer together. The project's logo shows various pagan symbols encircling the Earth—the yin/yang symbol, Celtic cross, Mjöllnir, a Triple Goddess symbol, an Eye of Horus, Venus of Willendorf, ankh, pentagram, triskelion, Stone Megalith, Green Man, Enneagram, and the Kabbalistic Tree of life.
Pagan Pride Day is an annual event held in a variety of locations across the world. [2] The festivities are as varied as the communities who organize them. Some events are simple open picnics or cook-outs held in a local park; others are full-fledged festivals with rented venues, performance stages, and food facilities. There are, however, several common elements.
First and foremost is the goal of educating the public about the beliefs and practices of various Neopagan traditions. The general public is invited and there are usually tables of reading materials, staffed by members of a range of Neopagan denominations. Speakers or workshops may focus on dispelling common misconceptions about Neopaganism, or may seek to educate outsiders about the details of their particular beliefs and practices.
The second most common aspect is charitable work. Many Pagan Pride coordinating committees choose a local charity to support with fundraising and/or donations raised by the event. These charities might be organizations related to environmental conservation, animal rescues, food pantries, shelters for victims of domestic violence, or related causes.
Pagan Pride Day events are open to the public and generally welcoming to families and children. Hosting a PPD event requires adherence to a range of policies. [3]
Many Pagan Pride festivals showcase local Neopagan performers, artisans, and merchants. Some events offer open mic sessions where attendees might chant, tell jokes, spin tales, drum, or read poetry. [4]
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a collective term for religious movements influenced by or derived from the various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern peoples. Although they share similarities, contemporary pagan religious movements are diverse, and do not share a single set of beliefs, practices, or texts. Most academics who study the phenomenon treat it as a movement that is divided into different religions; others characterize it as a single religion of which different pagan faiths are denominations.
The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by many modern Pagans, consisting of the year's chief solar events and the midpoints between them. While names for each festival vary among diverse pagan traditions, syncretic treatments often refer to the four solar events as "quarter days", with the four midpoint events as "cross-quarter days". Differing sects of modern Paganism also vary regarding the precise timing of each celebration, based on distinctions such as lunar phase and geographic hemisphere.
Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today is a sociological study of contemporary Paganism in the United States written by the American Wiccan and journalist Margot Adler. First published in 1979 by Viking Press, it was later republished in a revised and expanded edition by Beacon Press in 1986, with third and fourth revised editions being brought out by Penguin Books in 1996 and then 2006 respectively.
Finnish Neopaganism, or the Finnish native faith, is the contemporary revival of Finnish paganism, the pre-Christian polytheistic ethnic religion of the Finns. A precursor movement was the Ukonusko of the early 20th century. The main problem in the revival of Finnish paganism is the nature of pre-Christian Finnish culture, which relied on oral tradition which may be subject to change over time. The primary sources concerning Finnish native culture are written by latter-era Christians.
The Starwood Festival is a seven-day Neo-Pagan, New Age, multi-cultural and world music festival, taking place every July in the United States of America. The Starwood Festival is a camping event which holds workshops on a variety of subjects. There are also live musical performances, rituals, bonfires, multimedia presentations and social activities. It is a clothing optional event, and skyclad attendance is common.
A covenstead is a meeting place of a coven. The term relates specifically to the meeting place of witches within certain modern religious movements such as Wicca that fall under the collective term Modern Paganism, also referred to as Contemporary Paganism or Neopaganism. It functions to provide a place for the group to conduct rituals, undertake lessons and recognise festivals. It can also be referred to as the home of the coven.
Árpád von Nahodyl is a German writer, neopagan activist and politician. His books on pagan subjects are published under the pseudonym Géza von Neményi. Active in Germany's neopagan scene since the early 1980s, he founded the Heidnische Gemeinschaft which attracted media attention and controversy in that decade. After leaving the organization, he founded the Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft in 1991. Nahodyl has also been involved in local politics for several parties, most recently Alternative for Germany.
Baltic neopaganism is a category of autochthonous religious movements which have revitalised within the Baltic people. These movements trace their origins back to the 19th century and they were suppressed under the Soviet Union; after its fall they have witnessed a blossoming alongside the national and cultural identity reawakening of the Baltic peoples, both in their homelands and among expatriate Baltic communities, with close ties to conservation movements. One of the first ideologues of the revival was the Prussian Lithuanian poet and philosopher Vydūnas.
Celtic modern paganism refers to any type of modern paganism or contemporary pagan movements based on the ancient Celtic religion.
The Pagan Federation is a UK-based voluntary organisation, founded as the Pagan Front, with the objective of providing information and countering misconceptions about Neopaganism. It was formed in 1971, and campaigns for the religious rights of Neo-pagans and educates both civic bodies and the general public about Paganism. Pagan Federation is a constituted voluntary organisation, registered as a private Company limited by guarantee, with exemption for use of 'limited' with Companies House on 22 August 2000, with its nature listed as a Religious Organisation. The memorandum of the association lists the objects of the Pagan Federation as providing services for Pagans in the UK and abroad, providing information about Paganism to the public and all interested bodies, educating the public about Pagan beliefs and traditions, providing access to Pagan celebrations, and providing pastoral care for Pagans in the community including those in hospitals and prisons.
Neopaganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest Neopagan religious movement is Wicca, followed by Neodruidism. Both of these religions or spiritual paths were introduced during the 1950s and 1960s from Great Britain. Germanic Neopaganism and Kemetism appeared in the US in the early 1970s. Hellenic Neopaganism appeared in the 1990s.
Sabina Magliocco, is a professor of anthropology and religion at the University of British Columbia and formerly at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She is an author of non-fiction books and journal articles about folklore, religion, religious festivals, foodways, witchcraft and Neo-Paganism in Europe and the United States.
Heathenry as it is expressed in Canada is used as a universal term to describe a wide range of Germanic Neopaganism. Those who practice the religions or folk-ways of Ásatrú, Forn Sed, Odinism or Theodism are all considered part of a greater Heathen umbrella. In Canada, Heathenry takes a socially liberal standing in its philosophy. The exclusion of adherents on the basis of ethnic origin, sexual orientation, other group affiliation as well as other discriminatory factors is opposed by most Canadian Heathen groups, although there are, as in the United States a small number of racially minded groups that limit their membership to those of "Nordic ancestry".
Druidry, sometimes termed Druidism, is a modern spiritual or religious movement that promotes the cultivation of honorable relationships with the physical landscapes, flora, fauna, and diverse peoples of the world, as well as with nature deities, and spirits of nature and place. Theological beliefs among modern Druids are diverse; however, all modern Druids venerate the divine essence of nature.
Neopaganism in South Africa is primarily represented by the traditions of Wicca, contemporary Witchcraft, Germanic neopaganism and Neo-Druidism. The movement is related to comparable trends in the United States and Western Europe and is mostly practiced by White South African of urban background; it is to be distinguished from folk healing and mythology in local Bantu culture.
Heathenry in the United Kingdom consists of a variety of modern pagan movements attempting to revive the pre-Christian Germanic religion, such as that practised in the British Isles by Anglo-Saxon and Norse peoples prior to Christianisation.
Modern paganviews on LGBT people vary considerably among different paths, sects, and belief systems. LGBT individuals comprise a much larger percentage of the population in neopagan circles than larger, mainstream religious populations. There are some popular neopagan traditions which have beliefs often in conflict with the LGBT community, and there are also traditions accepting of, created by, or led by LGBT individuals. The majority of conflicts concern heteronormativity and cisnormativity.
Neopagan music is music created for or influenced by modern Paganism. Music produced in the interwar period include efforts from the Latvian Dievturība movement and the Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt. The counterculture of the 1960s established British folk revival and world music as influences for American neopagan music. Second-wave feminism created women's music which includes influences from feminist versions of neopaganism. The United States also produced Moondog, a Norse neopagan street musician and composer. The postwar neopagan organisations Ásatrúarfélagið in Iceland and Romuva in Lithuania have been led by musicians.
Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, is a collective term for religious movements which are influenced by or derived from the various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern peoples. Although they share similarities, contemporary pagan religious movements are diverse, and as a result, they do not share a single set of beliefs, practices, or texts.