BANGOR, Maine — Dancing and drumming and music and rituals were some of the ways that area pagans flew their flags high on Saturday during an event held to celebrate their spirituality and celebrate it with others.
Saturday’s Eastern Maine Pagan Pride Day, which was the seventh to date, drew dozens of men, women and children to the Unitarian Universalist Church on Park Street.
The idea behind the international Pagan Pride Project is to promote tolerance and understanding among people of different belief systems through education, activism, charity and community, according to the project’s website.
The annual Eastern Maine pride gathering typically draws about 100 pagans and people who are curious about pagans in a given year, according to Teresa Cassinelli of Orono, president of the Eastern Maine group.
The group’s spokeswoman, Michele Littlefield of Glenburn, said that a common question she and other members field is what exactly is paganism.
“It’s basically an earth-based spirituality and that’s pretty much the simplest of terms because there’s just so many religions that [belong in the category],” she said. “We’re accepting of other people’s beliefs. We hold all life as sacred.
“Some people believe in one god, some people believe in one goddess, some people believe in many gods and goddesses,” she said, adding that shamanism, druidism and wicca are some of the many spiritual paths that fall under its umbrella.
“Maine has a very large pagan population and most people aren’t aware of it,” she said, pointing out that the Eastern Maine pagan pride Facebook page has amassed nearly 800 “likes” to date and that there are pagan pride groups in north and southern Maine as well.
“People fear what they don’t understand and we’re here showing that, ‘Hey, I’m a social worker’ or ‘Hey, I’m an IT person,’” Littlefield said. “We’re mothers, fathers, uncles, brothers, sisters, children. We’re from all walks of life.”
Several of the pagans who turned up for Saturday’s pride event have become ordained clergy through a three-year course offered by the Temple of the Feminine Divine, located at 31 Central St. in Bangor.
That was the case for Louise Shorette, who lives off the grid in
Jackson and brought along an array of the jewelry she makes and sells. She said she was ordained in 2015.
“I’m doing my first handfasting next weekend,” Shorette said of the pagan marriage or betrothal ritual that dates back to the time of the ancient Celts.
Pagan pride activities on Saturday included workshops, traveling Red Tent for women and those who identify themselves as women, a roundtable talk, a drum circle and a harvest ritual, among other things. There were activities for children and the price of admission was a nonperishable food item to be given to a local organization in need.