(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Flames engulf The Burning Man Saturday night, Sept. 1, 2012, during Burning Man 2012 in the Black Rock Desert, Nev.

Burning Man Festival Spirituality exists amid the flames of the counterculture and harks back to early Christianity.

Thousands gathered on a northern Nevada plain last week to watch and cheer as a 70-foot-tall white neon man was burned into extinction, amid raucous music, dancing and fireworks.

The annual Burning Man festival ended the next day with another ritual blaze: the destruction of a temporary temple, filled with photos and written memories of loved ones, pets, failed relationships, troubled pasts, old ideas and profound emotions hastily scrawled on pieces of paper, wood, cloth and cardboard. Some expressed anguish with words like "my life sucks." A woman hung up her wedding dress.

Pagan Pride Day

Salt Lake Pagan Pride will hold its annual Pagan Pride Day at Murray Park Pavilions 1, 2 and 3 on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will be music and booths. For admission, bring a nonperishable food item to donate for The Road Home. Visit http://www.saltlakeppd.org for information.

Unlike the previous night, the Sunday temple fire was quiet and reverential for the more than 60,000 seated on the ground.

It wasnt just about letting go of cherished family and friends, says Kent Frogley, a Salt Lake City marketing consultant who calls himself an "emeritus Mormon," but about how death transforms relationships.

Why build something so beautiful each year and then torch it?

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The Church of Burning Man: Counterculture spirituality