Pagan's Night Out: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Pagan social get-together}}

'''Pagan's Night Out''', or PNO, is a regularly scheduled social get-together, usually monthly, held in hundreds of [[Paganism|Pagan]] and [[Neopaganism|Neopagan]] communities around the world. Begun in [[Houston, TX]] in [[1992]] as a way for users of the [[Brewers' Witch BBS]] to meet face to face, Pagan's Night Out has become a worldwide phenomena.<ref>a [[Google]] search for ''pagan +night +out'' turns up over 750 matches. Adding ''pno'' increases the matches threefold but with less relevance.</ref> Held in bars, pubs, coffee shops, cafes, restaurants and meeting halls, PNO is a social event for [[Wicca]]ns, [[Asatru]]ar, [[Thelema|Thelemites]], [[Druidism|Druids]], [[Temple of Set|Setians]] and the hundreds of other [[Neopaganism|Neopagan]] sects and sub-divisions.

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'''Pagan's Night Out''', or PNO, is a regularly scheduled social get-together, usually monthly, held in hundreds of [[Paganism|Pagan]] and [[Neopaganism|Neopagan]] communities around the world. BegunIt began in [[Houston, TXTexas]], in [[1992]] as a way for users of the [[Brewers' Witch BBS]] to meet face to face, Pagan's Night Out has become a worldwide phenomena.<ref>a [[Google]] search for ''pagan +night +out'' turns up over 750 matches. Adding ''pno'' increases the matches threefold but with less relevance.</ref> Held in bars, pubs, coffee shops, cafes, restaurants and meeting halls, PNO is a social event for [[Wicca]]ns, [[Asatru]]ar, [[Thelema|Thelemites]], [[Druidism|Druids]], [[Temple of Set|Setians]] and the hundreds of other [[Neopaganism|Neopagan]] sects and sub-divisions.

==Origins==

===The Brewers' Witch BBS===

The Brewers' Witch [[BBSBulletin Board System]] was started in May of 1992, running on a [[DOS]] [[IBM PC compatible|PC]] using the [[Waffle (bbsBBS software)|Waffle]] BBS software and a single phone line.<ref name="bbsdoc">[http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/photos/034donal/index.html BBS: The Documentary]</ref> It was one of three Pagan-oriented BBSs in Houston at that time and, thanks to its [[USENETUsenet]] newsgroups and email, quickly became a favorite haunt of the online [[Neopaganism|Neopagans]] there.<ref name="boardwatch">Boardwatch Magazine, October 1995</ref> EventuallyLater expanding to 5 phone lines and an [[Integrated Services Digital Network|ISDN]] feed running on a [[FreeBSD]] UNIX system, the BBS eventually spawned a webpage and, as the BBS era came to a close, moved totally onto the newly emerging [[Internet]].<ref>[httphttps://wwwweb.archive.org/web/*/http://brewich.com/ The Brewers' Witch BBS website]</ref> In its time the website garnered numerous 'Net awards including [[Pagan Best of the Web]], and the BBS was featured in ''[[Boardwatch Magazine]]'' magazine.<ref name="boardwatch"/> Although the dialup BBS ceased operations in 1998, and the website saw the end of its heyday by 2000, the website still exists in a mostly static form. InAt 2004their Beltaine celebration in 2005, Donal, the BBS's SysAdmin, Donal, received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the [[Council of Magickal Arts]], a Texas-based 501(c)(3) religious organization that promotes spirituality, celebration and networking within the Neopagan community, for his work on The Brewers' Witch BBS and Pagan's Night Out, as well as his work creating the USENET[[Usenet]] [[Usenet newsgroup|newsgroup]], [[soc.religion.paganpaganism]].<ref> Donal was the author of the newsgroup RFD and charter, and husbanded the newsgroup through its creation.<ref name="srp cfv">*[http://groups.google.com/group/alt.pagan/browse_thread/thread/347363acd23c3eba/0b42c95c71a41444?lnk=gst&q=soc.religion.paganism&rnum=5#0b42c95c71a41444 Call For Votes (and results) for soc.religion.paganism] on Google Groups</ref>

Donal had quickly realized that many tensions existed between the members of various traditions that were using his BBS and, influenced by a regular weekly party held by a chat board he was familiar with, decided to get his users together for a casual social outing to try to get them to view each other as friends first and practitioners of widely differing faiths second.<ref name="bbsdoc"/> The announcement on his BBS regarding Pagan's Night Out, made a few weeks before the suggested date, said everyone should "leave the [[Boline]]s and starched robes at home", meaning there was to be no discussion of inter-tradition politics.

===First PNO===

The first PNO was held on August 25, 1992<ref>Notes and on-line logs of the Brewers' Witch BBS in Septemberthe possession of 1992Silverflame, atone [http://www.mcgonigels.comof McGonigel'sthe Muckyoriginal Duck Pub]participants.</ref> in [[Houston, TxTexas]], with barely more than a dozen in attendance. The band that night, as it was also the following month, was the [[Celtic music|Celtic]] folk duo [http://www.loosegoose.com/Muse Ceili's Muse]. By the next year monthly attendance was closer to 50 with occasional ''special'' PNO's (such as Yule and Samhain celebrations) exceeding 120.<ref>Signed logbooks of many of the early PNOs are in the possession of Donal, the SysAdmin of The Brewers' Witch BBS.</ref>

==History==

A PNO was started in the Washington, DC, area in 1998 when a resident from Houston moved to the nation's capital and wanted to offer a similar program for Pagans in the area. Originally sponsored by the now defunct Mystic District Planning Coalition, the DC area PNO is currently sponsored by The Open Hearth Foundation. The DC-PNO originally met on the 13th of each month and rotated locations among DC, Northern Virginia, and suburban Maryland. It now meets on the third Friday of the month.

Today there are PNOs all over the world and in every major city in the United States, even one that meets on a U.S. aircraft carrier. The U.S. military has been instrumental in this spread and most non-U.S. PNOs are found on or near military bases.

==Impact==

Even through the internet age, PNO's were one of the only places people could come out of the 'broom closet' and talk with other Pagans and Neopagans. For those that aren't associated with other circles or covens, this was a very helpful place for the solitary practitioner to meet others in their area face to face. Pagan's Night Out began social networking with unaffiliated Pagans which would allow others to share ideas, discuss activities and even hold open rituals. It is perhaps the widely most used medium for in-person networking in the Pagan social scene.

==Trivia==

*'''Pagan's Night Out''' is a song by [http://www.wiccabilly.com Loke E. Coyote's Wiccabilly Circus]. This song can be found on the MeGaPaGaTeXaPaLooZa CD which was recorded in April 2001 with songs from both [[SONA (band)|SONA]] and Trickster on it.

*The band at the first two PNO's was the [[Celtic music|Celtic]] folk duo [[Céilí's Muse]]. This was not intentional, but merely serendipitous.

==References==

{{reflist}}

<references/>

{{paganism-stub}}

==External links==

*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.brewich.com/ |date=* |title=The Brewers' Witch BBS }}

*[http://www.magickal-arts.org Council of Magickal Arts]

*[http://www.witchvox.com The Witches Voice]

*[http://www.wiccabilly.com Loke E. Coyote's Wiccabilly Circus]

[[Category:Modern pagan events|Night Out]]

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