By John CastellucciJournal Staff Writer  PAWTUCKET — On the face of it, there was nothing irregular about Rhode Island Pagan Pride’s plans for a Sept. 22 autumnal equinox festival in Slater Memorial Park.

There would be opportunities for pagans of all persuasions, including Wiccans, shamans and druids, to practice their religion. (more…)

A small but enthusiastic crowd was gathered in Tappan Square with some people decked out in skirts and capes and sporting their finest piercings, while others were dressed in everyday clothing. But everyone was there last Saturday to experience the Beltaine Festival, which Tim Sullivan, an Oberlin resident and part-time student who helped organize the event, called a “Renaissance-esque Fair with a pagan bent.”

The Oberlin Pagan Awareness Network has been planning since September to get the festival — which is its biggest event of the year and the one most open to nonmembers — off the ground. The Beltaine holiday is an Irish tradition related to the May Day festival that celebrates renewal, rebirth and fertility in the moment between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. (more…)

Southern Illinois - A group of slightly less than 30 people, some sporting rabbit ears, stood in a circle around a small wooden floor in the Davis-McCann Center in Murphysboro Saturday night, tracing the outline of their bodies with eggs.

The high priestess of the ceremony, Tara Nelsen, instructed the group that doing this would help pull the negativity out of their lives and breaking the eggs would completely remove it. (more…)

Springdale, AK - “This is the time of spring’s return — the joyful time, the seed time, when life bursts forth from the earth and the chains of winter are broken. Light and dark are equal. It is a time of balance, when all the elements within us can be brought into a new harmony. …

“This time of year is pregnant with new beginnings. Life emerges from the cocoon of winter. We open ourselves to balance and joy.” (more…)

Batu Caves is among Malaysia’s most popular attractions. In 2005 alone, some 2,250,000 visitors arrived from India to Malaysia’s capital and majority of the figure headed to Batu Caves.

It receives most attention during the Thaipusam festival, which celebrates two events: the birthday of Lord Murugan, the son of the god Siva and his wife Parvati, and Lord Murugans defeat of the demon Soorapadman with the aid of a powerful lance given to him by his mother. (more…)