The Grand Rapids Press

Diane Meas and Beth Hall spread out a sheet under a tree at Riverside Park Sunday and munched on deviled eggs, grilled chicken and potato salad as their children kicked around a plastic ball.

It was a good day for a picnic, but it wasn't the reason the two friends came to the Northeast Side park.

Meas and Hall joined hundreds of people who turned out Sunday for the Grand Rapids Pagan Pride Day festival at Riverside Park on Grand Rapids' Northeast Side to celebrate "Mabon" -- the autumn equinox that signifies the harvest, one of eight holy days for many pagans.

"This is about us coming out of the broom closet, so to speak," said Jennifer Suttorp, event coordinator and director of Sanctuary of the Winds, a Grand Rapids group that meets monthly to worship and teach the basics of earth-based religions.

The goal of Sunday's event was to foster pride in pagan identity through education, activism, charity and community, and to show others that pagans are just normal people.

"We're saying 'We're here, we believe differently than you do, but it doesn't mean our faith is any less valid than yours.' "

Not long ago, most pagans preferred to keep their beliefs secret, fearful that others would mistakenly believe they were devil worshippers.

"That is so far from the truth," Suttorp said. "We don't sacrifice animals, we don't sacrifice babies or virgins. We have a great respect for life and the earth."

Pagans see the divine in every tree, plant, human, animal and object, Suttorp said, and live attuned to the cycles of nature, the seasons and life and death.

Some practice a religion or a spirituality based on shamanism -- or magical practices -- while others create new religions based on past pagan religions or futuristic views of society.

The free, day-long event -- one of four held in Michigan this year -- featured a pagan ceremony, a drumming circle and workshops that included the history of Wicca, meditation and Viking storytelling.

Visitors also could peruse about 20 booths, which included jewelry; herbs used for cooking, aromatherapy and rituals; and books on astrology and witchcraft.

Susan Siedler drove to Grand Rapids from Battle Creek to sell her handmade jewelry. The mother of two says she searched a long time for a spirituality she felt comfortable with before settling on paganism.

"It's not easy. You want people to tell you what to do and what to believe, but I had a hard time with that," she said. "This is what feels right to me."

Siedler shares her spirituality with her children, ages 9 and 12, but only to a point.

"My daughter really wants a pentacle," she said, describing the five-pointed-star necklace that is often mistaken for a Satanic symbol. "But I just don't think she's ready to have to deal with the questions."

Grand Rapids’ local event was affiliated with the Pagan Pride Project, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit organization that held 76 events worldwide last year and was attended by nearly 18,000 people.

"I don't think a lot of people realize it's a way of life," said Meas, a 37-year-old Kentwood mother of three. Both she and Hall are practicing Wiccans.

"I think the term 'witch' scares a lot of people," Hall said. "Wicca isn't anti-religion. It's pro-spirituality."

Meas said she encourages her children to pursue any religion that interests them. Her 18-year-old daughter, she said, told her "Mom, (Wicca) just isn't for me," while her two younger children went to vacation Bible school this summer and enjoy putting up a nativity at Christmastime.

"Too many kids grow up believing what their parents believe because their parents believe it," she said. "I think they have to come up with their own path."

Sunday's event also served as a food drive for the Grand Valley Native American Food Lodge and a fundraiser for the Kent County Humane Society.

"This is a time of thanks for our abundance," Suttorp said, "so we're getting together to spread our wealth."