18th Annual Kansas City Pagan Pride Day – Harvest Festival and Craft Faire

MERRIAM, Kan. - Aug. 29, 2016 - PRLog -- Join us on Sunday, September 11th from 10 am to 6 pm at the Merriam Marketplace in Merriam, Kansas to learn more about the often misunderstood religion of Paganism at the 18^th Annual Kansas City Pagan Pride Day, Harvest Celebration and Craft Faire.  Since 1999, we have sought to provide the public an opportunity to experience a first-person view of not only what Pagans do but how we do it.  If you are a Pagan, we hope this event will help you grow in pride and confidence in your chosen path. If you are not Pagan, we welcome you to join us with the intent to experience and learn more about Paganism so that we might open lines of communication to identify common ground.

This is a FREE event and open to the public.  Come join us to see drumming, live music, belly dancing, and community rituals.  Attend workshops on various Pagan topics and visit information tables hosted by local Pagan organizations.   Shop at our nineteen booths offering unique hand-crafted items made by local Pagan crafters.  Participate in our huge charity raffle being benefiting Healing Waters Fly Fishing, a local charity supporting disabled soldiers.  Visit our divination area to get more insight into your lives.  Cross foam swords with the local Amtgard group dedicated to medieval and fantasy combat sports and recreation. Contribute to our food drive benefiting Harvesters.  Take your children to our special children's craft and activity area.

This year's entertainment will include Cathy Burchett, a local drum instructor and performer, will be facilitating a drum circle.  Peaty Bog Water will take us on a mystical, magical musical adventure with their three-piece acoustical band.  Bran Cerddorion, a Druidic bard, will play us Celtic-inspired music drawn from realms of nature, myth, and dream.  Etoile has gathered some of the best belly dancers in Kansas City to give us a demonstration of this beautiful and powerful form of expression.

One of the most important Kansas City Pagan Pride Day activities has been our charity raffles which has raised thousands of dollars for local non-profit charities. We know that what we do returns to us and we demonstrate this by offering compassion to our communities where it is needed. When we share our own abundance, we show that we trust the Gods to share abundance with us in return.   The Pagan community of crafters, metaphysical stores, and individuals have also come together to donate some unbelievable items to a charity raffle in order to help us raise money for a local community charity.  This year's proceeds will be given to Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc., a charity dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and disabled veterans by enabling them to interact with nature through fly fishing and associated activities including education and outings.  Every year we also celebrate the Autumnal Equinox, a time of thanksgiving in many Pagan traditions, by conducting a food drive to offer thanks for our blessings and to give to those less fortunate than ourselves.

Paganism is an umbrella term encompassing religions that draw their beliefs from a rich diversity of traditions that range from reconstructed ancient religions, modern mainstream religions, and new religious movements.  Some common local traditions include Wicca, Druidism, Heathenry, Shamanism, and Hermeticism.  It is a growing spiritual movement based on combinations of ancient polytheism, modern eco-spirituality, and reverence for the Divine as both masculine and feminine.  They draw their beliefs from a rich diversity of traditions that range from reconstructed ancient religions, modern mainstream religions, and new religious movements.  They may be follow a particular tradition or they may follow their own inspiration.  They develop their own vision of the Divine and create a direct and personal experience.  They accept that there has been and will continue to be many forms of worship and lifestyles. Despite its great diversity, hundreds of thousands of individuals have proudly self-defined themselves as Pagan both here in the United States and around the world.

This event is sponsored by Kansas City Pagan Pride Day, Inc. a Missouri non-profit public benefit corporation (N009965626) as defined by the Missouri Nonprofit Corporation Act, and a 501(c)(3) tax exempt nonprofit organization as a chapter of the Pagan Pride Project, Inc.  For more information about the event or about Pagan religions, contact Sam Shryock at info@kcppd.com or visit http://www.kcppd.com or http://www.facebook.com/kcppd.