Over a hundred people gathered on Saturday Aug 14th at Sacred Harvest Festival to honor Ken Ra and his years of passing knowledge. The event was hosted by Linda Green and an informal circle was cast using the songs “Air Moves Me”, the “Lady’s, Lord’s, and an Ancestor’s Bransle”.
Ken Ra and Liz
Over a Hundred People Attended, 42 drove down especially for this event!
During Sacred Harvest Festival there is a tradition of asking a question of the day at the daily morning meeting, which all attendees are encouraged to attend. Festival goers then have all day to think of a response, write it down, and hand it in. The next day a response is picked at random to be read during the morning meeting and the winner receives a prize. Questions this year ranged from “What is your favorite Sacred Harvest Festival memory” to “What are your constructive criticisms of the festival?”
The question on the second to last day of the festival was, “What should next year’s festival theme be?” Unlike previous questions of the day the winning answer wasn’t chosen at random. Instead, the Harmony Tribe Council looked through all the suggestions and voted on the selection that would become the theme for next year. The selection was announced at the last morning meeting.
Dreaming the Fae is the theme for the 2011 Sacred Harvest Festival, which will be held August 6-14.
Other information given out at the final morning meeting was this year’s total attendance at 299 attendees, 45 of them were children age 16 and under.
To comply with new federal regulations, Minnesotans vote in their first ever August primary – Tuesday, August 10th. Experts concerned with how expected low voter turnout could impact the general election results in November.
September primaries have been a tradition in Minnesota since 1939, but passage of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act forced state lawmakers to move to an earlier date. This law helps ensure that votes cast by military members and other US citizens living abroad have time to be counted back home. All states must now provide at least a 45-day window between the primary and general election to accommodate absentee voting.
Some political experts predict the change in date will negatively impact voter turnout with some expecting a turnout as low as 12%. The two main reasons given for why the expectations are lower this election are a decreasing sense of party loyalty and August being the most popular time of migration to cabins and lakes.
In Paganistan many of our community members are at the Sacred Harvest Festival. The festival opened Saturday and attendance appears to be higher this year than last year.
According to Justin Lindquist, “I got there right at noon on Saturday and there were already more tents set up than last year. Definitely more people are attending this year.”
Pagan Newswire Collective - Minnesota Bureau 