Story By: Cameron W. Johnson
On October 21st, a group of University of Montevallo students gathered to learn about and plan celebrations for holidays this harvest season that aren’t well-known in mainstream religion. This is every Monday evening for Pantheon, a UM organization that allows students practicing or curious about relatively obscure faiths to explore the full pantheon of the religious world.
This was the second Pantheon meeting for the irreligious Skylar Pate, who says, “The people I’ve met so far have been kind, and very good people. So I’m looking forward to being here more.”
“With the plethora of Christian organizations, we didn’t feel that other religions that other religions had a platform to speak on”, said Pantheon president Joshua Love, who identified as Pagan.
Bri Mumpowers, a Wiccan who oversees public relations for Pantheon, this year marks the end of the organization’s probationary period. Officiated as a student organization for UM, Pantheon is planning various new events and trips to religious sits around the Birmingham area.
One of Pantheon’s forthcoming events is a party to celebrate the traditional Gaelic festival of Samhain, which coincides with Halloween. The group’s meeting this past Monday was centered around planning this event, as well as discussing the festival and the Central American holiday of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
Pantheon invites students to break from the Halloween craze with their Samhain celebration, then continue to come back to learn more about this and other religious practices.
Vallo Vision News 