MITHRACON 2008(The New England Convention for Mithraic Studies)
The 11th annual Mithracon was held in New Haven CT on the weekend of April 11th-13th. This year's convention was delightfully casual, with an evening out for Persian food in honor of Mithras, and of course featuring a full day of research at the Yale University Library.
It's amazing how much information simply is not available to the average layperson... much regarding history and ancient religion is written
by scholars
for scholars, and appears in publications that mostly never see the outside of universities. You can't just walk into these libraries and browse, so Mithracon is an opportunity to get at the rare information your local library just can't procure. This year attendees needed to have new photo ID's made before being allowed into the bookstacks... but the process only took a few minutes and the ID's can be used again next year.
As always, Mithracon included casual discussion time, vendor sales, time for research presentations, (scholarly and otherwise) and a visit to the Yale University Museum as well as the library day mentioned above. A good time was had by all, and plans are underway for next year's convention. Mithracon is highly recommended as a great way to spend time with others passionate about ancient history and religion, as well as a rare research opportunity.
Check out www.mithracon.org in the next few weeks for registration information for 2009!