Ce
ntral NC Pagan Pride Day (CNCPPD) was last weekend and it was a great time! With 1,800 attending, 4,099 meals raised for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC in the form of over a ton of food and half a grand in cash, and 23 units of blood donated through the Rex Blood Bus, it is the most successful CNCPPD we have ever had, and is definitely one of the most successful in the world this year! It was supposed to rain all weekend, but with a couple thousand pagans hoping, casting and pleading for sunny days, the gods smiled on us, or at least didn't frown. We ended up with some sun, some clouds and lots of cool, overcast hours, but no rain to speak of. And that was just fine with the crowds.
Tamara put together another beautiful booth for the Church of the Earth this year, complete with Autumn decorations, cool water, snacks, band-aids and Tylenol. Also, Rob and I created a nice brochure to hand out at the booth, and we will have some of those at the gardens to hand out to new people from now on. Though I worked the festival as staff again, we were better organized and I actually had the chance to spend a couple hours working at our booth on Saturday. We had lots of visitors, including one who, after hearing a brief description of Pagan beliefs in general, asked me, "So where is the Devil in all this?" I was a little taken aback, so I answered literally, "In someone else's religion." The thing is, she was really trying to understand, so we continued the discussion and I think we found common ground. She will likely never become a Pagan, and that's fine, but it certainly seemed like she had found a way to accept that there might be more than one valid path, and that's great! And the best part was the next day, while I was doing my shift at the front gate, she came back, with friends. They all planned to learn about Druids, so I am hoping Ailim over at the Druid booth fared as well as I did. It seems our festival planted at least one seed of tolerance and understanding at a Church somewhere in Raleigh. I am actually more excited about that than about the donations, the bands, the workshops and all the other great things that went on over the weekend.
Blessed ba, ram, eu,
Silly Rabbit (a.k.a. Johnson)
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