Selena Fox, Senior Minister of Circle Sanctuary. “Every year, Circle Sanctuary creates programs for youth of different ages as part of its Pagan Spirit Gathering,” says Rev. One of those festivals with a robust child and teen program is Pagan Spirit Gathering. Some are increasing their offerings as more families with children attend. Festivals vary in the programs offered specifically to children. ![]() These can last from a weekend to a week or longer. However, they won’t be able to give a child the benefit of being surrounded by those of their same faith.įor a specifically Pagan camping experience, a family could attend a Pagan or Heathen camping festival. These camps welcome people of all, or no, religious background. These are summer camps with no specific religious take, but with Pagan-friendly components such as spiritual drumming, yoga, and non-violent communication techniques. The closest to a Pagan summer camp currently operating are programs like Indigo Camp. While there appears to have been a summer day camp for Pagan children in the past, there aren’t any operating now. So what options do Pagan children have for a summer camp experience? Not many. One parent did say that he wouldn’t send his children because he didn’t see a need for summer camp and declined to be interviewed. ![]() Other than questions about affordability, there were no parents who were opposed to the idea. We sought opinions from many Pagan parents. We’ve moved all over the country and have been blessed with many Pagan friends and Pagan Parenting groups, but never a chance to expose them to an immersive experience in our faith.” She says not only would children benefit from knowing they aren’t alone, but Pagan communities would also benefit through a focus on instilling Pagan ethics in children.Īshley Sears, a Pagan mom living in the Minneapolis area, also welcomes the idea of a Pagan summer camp for her three children, ages 15, 13, and 11.“Having raised my kids Pagan since birth, it’s been a struggle to help them find their own “identity” within our faith. She says that she would budget through the year to be able to afford sending her children, ages 5 and 8, to a Pagan summer camp and would spend up to $700 a week for a sleep-over style camp. I would love for my children to have another opportunity to make those important connections,” says Kristin, a Pagan mother of two who lives in the Chicago area. We attend one Pagan Festival every summer, but that is the only exposure they have to us being part of a larger community. Teens create a pattern using spices before the Rangoli at Sacred harvest Festival. If that’s the case, are summer camps something that would benefit Pagan children? They learn how to be more comfortable with their religion which allows them to be more comfortable in mainstream society. According to Professor Sippy, they help to “strengthen the denominational and ancestral identity of young people in a polyglot nation with an enticingly secular popular culture.” Because they are surrounded by their peers, children learn what living their religion looks like for them. The US has a long tradition of religious or ethnic summer camps for children. to be proud of who you are.” Neha is now the director of the Hindu Heritage Summer Camp. She spoke with her peers and their college-age counselors about dealing with stereotypes and racism. ![]() She discovered a favorite bhajan, a Hindu devotional song. But eventually she loved doing morning yoga, her hair still cool and damp from the shower. Her holidays were different her culture was different and she dreaded questions such as “where do you go to church?”Īt first Neha did not look forward to summer camp for Hindu children. Like many children growing up in a minority religion, she felt set apart from her more mainstream friends. Tradition, Camp for Hindu Children Strengthens Their Identity.” In it we meet Neha Dhawan, a Hindu-American woman who says her life was changed by attending “Hindu camp” when she was eleven. The above quote comes from the recent New York Times article “ Building on U.S. ![]() This is understood to be all the more important because within the dominant American and Christian culture, Hindus and Hinduism are often exoticized and maligned.” – Shana Sippy, professor of religion at Carleton College in Minnesota, on the value of Hindu-American summer camps for children. “Time and again, parents and community leaders have recounted to me how the American conception of camp offers an opportunity for a cultural, religious and, in some cases, linguistic immersion with other American Hindu children.
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