The Academy of Lifelong Learning is hosting a presentation focusing specifically on the death practices of religious groups at noon on Wednesday in the Rotary Room of the Charleston Carnegie Public Library.

The five major world religions are Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

The Academy of Lifelong Learning helps to create events focusing on the general topic of global diversity.

Marita Metzke, the program coordinator at the Academy of Lifelong Learning, said the event would look at the death practices of these different groups and their mourning rituals.

“The event is an exploration in other cultures’ experiences with dying, death and mourning,” Metzke said. “The instructor is going to speak to the cultures that practice the five significant world religions.”

Metzke also said one of the reasons the academy is putting together this type of event is because of their global society.

“We have different cultures represented in our area and students, instructors, places of worships, so very close in our area communities, these cultures are represented,” Metzke said. “(The) bigger picture is that we want to know more about the world and how these different cultures figure into the state of the world today.”

Metzke said they would not only focus on how they deal with death but how the differing cultures also handle life.

“This particular event was suggest by a gerontology student, who took a class with the instructor,” Metzke said.

“We always offer courses that teach about other cultures,” Metzke said. “The general topic is not new, the specific class on death practices as they relate to the five world religions, that is something new.”

Metzke also said the academy usually spends a semester planning ahead for the following semester’s events.

“We are working on putting our spring schedule together, so we are contacting instructors and people that want to present and share their expertise on a topic,” Metzke said. “I have hundreds of ideas that people have suggested or we stumbled across in the community.”

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]