About 100 people who gathered at Murray City Park held hands in a circle and chanted, “May you never hunger, may you never thirst. Blessed be,” as they participated in a sacramental-style ceremony by eating muffins and drinking juice.

Some participants wore pentacle necklaces representing the connection between spirit, air, fire, water and Earth.

Several women carrying homemade brooms and wearing yellow, purple and blue robes led the ceremony with speeches and rituals involving the sprinkling of water. One woman wore a crown of red grapes on her head while others in the group just dressed in jeans, T-shirts and tennis shoes.

“[Paganism] is a nature-based religion that is accepting of everyone,” said Talea Shadowwind, who wore a blue robe and participated in the ceremony. “ . . . We're not devil worshippers, we don't have blood rituals . . . and we don't eat children."

Salt Lake City resident Lisa Duran and her 10-year-old daughter, Veronica, are not pagans but have attended the pride day for the past three years. They watched the ceremony with their dog, Buddy.

“The Pagans I've met, they're very peaceful," Lisa Duran said. “They respect the Earth. There should be more Pagans out there.”

Pagan Pride Day 2007 media coordinator Rita Morgan said she has practiced paganism for about 40 years and that some form of pagan worship has existed in Utah since the early '80s.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the international Pagan Pride Project.

“It's to educate non-pagans and the general society about what paganism is,” said Pagan Pride local coordinator Bernadene Whitten.

At the event, 17 vendors lined the park to sell incense, beads, jewelry, oils, books and colorful robes and rocks. Some Pagans read Tarot cards, while others offered massages.

Children under a picnic awning painted their faces and arms, while others listened to a man playing a harp.

Attendee Jenny Smith, who was carrying a book titled The Secret of the Soul, clapped her hands as she watched the afternoon ceremony. She said she had only come down to the festival for the morning drum circle and did not want to join the pagans.

“It's not my vibration,” she said.

Pagan Pride Day 2007 is also a charity that collected food that will be donated to a local food bank and books that will go to a literacy program in Midvale, Whitten said.

jbergreen@sltrib.com