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"Ye have written of the Nineteen Day festivities.
This Feast is a bringer of joy. It is the groundwork of agreement and
unity. It is the key to affection and fellowship.
It diffuseth the oneness of mankind."
`Abdu'l-Bahá, From
a Tablet to an individual believer
- translated from the Persian,
in the Compilation of Compilations, p. 426
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The Bahá´í Calendar The Calendar Days
The
Bahá´í Calendar consists of 19 months, fitting 19 times into a 365 day
year with 4 or 5 extra days. The Gregorian calendar is based on a calculation
of the time of a solar year and the Bahá´í calendar is based on a calculation
of an observation of nature. Our year begins exactly at the point of the
equinox (March 21 or 22) so over thousands of years there may be slight
differences between the Gregorian and the Bahá´í calendar, which the Báb
inaugurated in 1844, the beginning of the Bahá´í religion.
Our new year which is astronomically fixed to the spring / autumn equinox
is preceded by nineteen days of fasting during our final month.
Bahá´ís fast between sunrise and sunset, so the New Year comes after a
time of cleansing or change or heightened awareness of the setting sun
:)
And a setting sun is the beginning of a Bahá´í day so a celebration could
be on that evening or the following day, except for some Holy Days which if
feasible should be celebrated at a particular time.
The
Nineteen Day feast is when the community meets as a whole to meditate,
consult and to socialize. This feast may be celebrated on any of the first
few days of that Bahá´í month. Each month is named after an attribute of
God and only Bahá´ís may attend the consultative part of the feast so that
Bahá´ís use this time for frank, direct consultation about their community.
Consultatie tijdens de feest van Kracht in Leiden, 2004.
Everyone is welcome to attend the other parts of the nineteen day feast
and any other event, such as the Holy Day celebrations.
Bahá'ís regard it as important to attend the Nineteen Day
Feast, as coming together as a community helps to build the unity that is
fundamental to Bahá'í belief.
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Activity at the feast of Questions in Leiden, 2002.
| The Feast consists of a meditative part, which can be anything from the
reading of prayers from Bahá'í texts
and those of other religions to worship in the form of song, movement, theatre,
or meditation.
Generally for the consultative part, the discussion is coordinated by a selected chairperson and often notes or suggestions or requests are
passed onto the Local Spiritual Assembly. The final part, is for
socializing. It can take any form. |
Although
there usually are refreshments at the Feast, the name is given because the
spiritual activities and socialising are seen as food for the spirit.
The Bahá´í Calendar
|
| Name of the Event |
Time - Date |
| Nineteen day feast: Bahá (Splendour) |
from sunset:
20 March |
|
| Naw Rúz (New Year) |
from sunset:
20 March |
|
| Nineteen day feast:
Jalál (Glory) |
from sunset:
8 April |
|
| First day of Ridván |
about 3 p.m. on
21 April |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Jamál (Beauty) |
from sunset:
27 April |
|
| Ninth day of Ridván |
from sunset:
28 April |
|
| Twelfth day of Ridván |
from sunset:
1 May |
|
| Nineteen day feast: 'Azamat (Grandeur) |
from sunset:
17 May |
|
Anniversary of the
Declaration of the Báb |
about 2 hours after sunset on 22 May |
|
Anniversary of the
Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh |
at 3 a.m.
29 May |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Núr (Light) |
from sunset:
4 June |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Rahmat (Mercy) |
from sunset:
23 June |
|
Anniversary of the
Martyrdom of the Báb |
about noon:
9 July |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Kalimát (Words) |
from sunset:
12 July |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Kamál (Perfection) |
from sunset:
31 July |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Asmá' (Names) |
from sunset:
19 August |
|
| Nineteen day feast: 'Izzat (Might) |
from sunset:
7 September |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Mashíyyat (Will) |
from sunset:
26 September |
|
| Nineteen day feast:'Ilm (Knowledge) |
from sunset:
15 October |
|
Anniversary of the
Birth of the Báb |
from sunset:
19 October |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Qudrat (power)
|
from sunset:
3 november
|
|
Anniversary of the
Birth of Bahá'u 'lláh |
from sunset:
11 November |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Qawl (Speech)
|
from sunset:
22 November |
|
| Day of the Covenant |
from sunset:
25 November |
|
Anniversary of the
Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Bahá |
at 1 a.m.
28 November |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Masá'il
(Questions) |
from sunset:
11 December |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Sharaf (Honour) |
from sunset:
30 December |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Sultán
(Sovereignty) |
from sunset:
18 January |
|
| Nineteen day feast: Mulk (Dominion) |
from sunset:
6 Febuary |
|
Nineteen day feast:
The Intercalary Days |
26 February - 1 March |
|
|
Nineteen day feast:'Alá'
(Loftiness) |
from sunset:
1 March |
Naw Rúz
Pronounced "Noor-ruuz" it is Persian for New Year
and is celebrated at the vernal equinox(when the day is exactly
12 hours long), which is generally March 21st. Zoroastrians also
celebrate this as their new year as do a number of countries, such
as Iran, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan.
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The Days of Ridván
"
Hear Me, ye mortal birds!
In the Rose Garden of changeless splendour
a Flower hath begun to bloom..."
Bahá'u'lláh, "Tablets Revealed for Ridvan",
in Days of Ridvan - a compilation, page 16, Kalimát Press.
Bahá´ís celebrate the 1st, 9th and 12th days as Holy Days on which work
and academic studies should be suspended.
Bahá'u 'lláh has called this festival (April 21 - May 2)
the "King of Festivals" and the "Most Great Festival"
as this is when Bahá´ís celebrate Bahá'u'lláh's first declaration
of his station as a Messanger of God. Ridván means "paradise".
Also on this first day, all Bahá´í communities elect the members of their
local and sometimes their national administrative committees (known
as Local or National Spiritual Assemblies).
Some
History
It is 1863 and Bahá'u 'lláh has been banished from Baghdad
by the authorities.
"
When this news came to us, from which we inferred that my father would
again be made a prisoner, we were thrown into consternation, fearing another
separation.....The magistrates expressed great sorrow....but they were
powerless...My father remained in conference with them nearly all day,
but could do nothing to avert the catastrophe. When he returned, he told
us that we must prepare to set out for Constaninople
in two weeks.
This report was like a death-knell to his followers, who were still gathered
about the house...They implored the Blessed Perfection (One
of the titles of Bahá'u 'lláh)
not to desert them...The next day they so overran the house that we could
not prepare for the journey... Then the Blessed Perfection proposed to
go with 'Abbas Effendi('Abdul-Bahá)
to the garden of one of our friends, that the family might be able to
proceed with the packing. This remark was repeated and misunderstood,
and the rumour circulated among the believers that the Blessed Perfection
was to be taken away alone. Then they came pouring in by hundreds, so
wild with grief that they could not be pacified; and when my father started
to leave the house with my brother they threw themselves upon the ground
before him..."
Bahíyyih
Khánum, The
Greatest Holy Leaf as told in an interview in 1902,
from Days of Ridvan - a compilation, pages 52 - 53, Kalimát Press.
Bahá'u 'lláh went with 5 or 6 others to stay in the Garden
of Najíb Pasha (Known later as the Garden of Ridván), which
was just outside the city on an island on a river, arriving a few hours
before sunset.
"Whilst Bahá'u 'lláh was encamped in the Ridván, there
was much wind for some days.
His tent swayed; we thought it might be blown down...
All the city came, friends and others, to see Him leave for the Ridván.
There was a great crowd. Weeping women pressed forward and laid their
babes and young children at His feet. He tenderly raised those infants,
one by one, blessing them, gently and lovingly replacing them in their
sorrowing mothers' arms, and charging them to bring up those dear flowers
of humanity to serve God in steadfast faith and truth...
Our Beloved One got into a boat to cross the river, the people pressing
round..."
Chronicle
of Mírzá Asadulláh Káshání,
cited in Days of Ridvan - a compilation, pages 59 - 60, Kalimát Press.
"The words Bahá'u'lláh actually uttered on that occasion,
the manner of His Declaration...are shrouded in an obscurity...
...Nabíl is one of the few authentic records we possess...
Nabíl has related, "ere the hour of dawn, the gardeners would
pick the roses which lined the four avenues of the garden, and would pile
them in the center of the floor of His blessed tent. So great would be
the heap that when His companions gathered to drink their morning tea
in His presence, they would be unable to see each other across it.
All these roses Bahá'u 'lláh would, with His own hands,
entrust to those whom He dismissed from His presence every morning to
be delivered, on His behalf, to His Arab and Persian friends in the city...
As the hour of midnight approached, I saw Him issue from His tent... and
begin to pace up and down the moonlit, flower-bordered avenues of the
garden...For three successive nights I watched and circled round His blessed
tent. Every time I passed by the couch whereon He lay, I would find Him
wakeful, and every day, from morn till eventide, I would see Him ceaselessly
engaged in conversing with the stream of visitors who kept flowing in
from Baghdad..."
From
God Passes By by Shoghi Effendi,
cited in Days of Ridvan - a compilation, pages 42- 43.
Bahá'u'lláh received numerous farewell visits, including the Governor
who crossed the river by floating bridge. The river rose and then Bahá'u
'lláh's family was only able to cross the river to join him on
the ninth day.
Bahíyyih
Khánum is reported to have said that "...Bahá'u'lláh privately stated His claim to prophethood to
'Abdul-Bahá and four other followers. According to this account 'he enjoined
upon them secrecy as to this communication, as the time had not come for
a public declaration...'
Bahá'u 'lláh clearly did not make a general public announcement
of His prophetic claim at the Najibiyyih Garden:...although, of course,
His Bagdad writings are full of hints...
In some places Bahá'u 'lláh"
wrote of this as
"..to the Spot from which He shed upon the whole of creation, the
Splendours of His name, the All-Merciful."
(Gleanings,
page 35) ...Another
Tablet recounts His Journey from the House to the Ridvan Garden, giving
supernatural significance to each stage of the journey. Another refers
to His 'exile (hijrih) from Iraq', thus linking Bahá'u'lláh's
departure from the Most Great House to Muhammad's emigration from Mecca,
the site of the most holy House of Islam, to Medina, the city where Muhammad"
declared
His prophethood.
From
Sacred Acts, Sacred Space, Sacred Time
by John Walbridge,
pages 236, George Ronald.
Bahá´ís
celebrate this as Bahá'u 'lláh's transformation from a leader
of the Bábís to the station of a Messanger of God. Bahá'u
'lláh also made three pronouncements during this time.
"Bahá'u 'lláh's followers were forbidden to fight,
advance or defend their faith. (Religious war, jihad, ...permitted in Islam
and under certain conditions by the law of the Báb). Second, there would
not be another prophet for a full thousand years. Third, that at that moment
all the names of God were fully manifest in all things...Ridvan marks a
mystic transformatuon of the world, in which the entire creaton is infused
with the glory of God's names..."
From
Sacred Acts, Sacred Space, Sacred Time
by John Walbridge,
pages 237, George Ronald.
"...it
was here in this garden... He spoke of the manifestation of the Exalted
One, the Báb, saying that He was the Qá'ím, that
the Cause was His Cause - and at the same time with certain intimations,
He also delcared His Own Mission..."
Memoirs
of Ustád Muhammad-'Alí Salmání,
cited in Days of Ridvan - a compilation, page 67.
"O
ye beloved, and ye handmaids of the Merciful!
This is the day when the Day-Star of Truth rose over the horizon of life,
and its glory spread, and its brightness shone out with such power that
it clove the dences and high-piled clouds and mounted the skies of the
world in all its splendor. Hence do ye witness a new stirring throughout
all created things.
See how, in this day, the scope of sciences and arts hath widened out,
and what wonderous technical advances have been made, and to what a high
degree the mind's powers have increased, and what stupendous inventions
have appeared.
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Celebrating the 12th Day of Ridvan in the Leidse Hout, 2003.
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This age is indeed as a hundred other ages: should ye gather the yield
of a hundred ages, and set that against the accumulated product of our
times, the yield of this one era will prove greater than that of a hundred
gone before...."
Tablet
of 'Abdul-Bahá,
written to be read on the First Day of Rivdán for a British Bahá´í
cited in Days of Ridvan - a compilation, pages 29 -30.
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The
garden was filled with people coming for final farewells so it was late
in the afternoon of the twelfth day before they left.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION - Bahá´í elections - linked to 'administration' and a similiar amount of info about the other Holy Days. |
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The Bahá´í Fast
The fast between 2 and the 20th of March is seen as a period of spiritual preparation and regeneration for the new year ahead. During that time, Bahá´ís do not eat or drink between sunrise and sunset.
The pregnant, nursing mothers, travellers, those doing heavy physical work, the sick, elderly and very young have excemption from fasting.
Bahá'ís practice fasting as a discipline for the soul; they see abstaining from food as an outer symbol of a spiritual fast.
By this they mean the practice of self-restraint in order to distance oneself from all the appetites of the body and so concentrate on oneself as a spiritual being and get closer to God.
Abstaining from food is not an end in itself but a symbol and an aid towards learning self-discipline. There is no "punishment" for those who do not fast. Often Bahá'ís who cannot fast, do a partial fast or give themselves a discipline in other ways during this time.
Fasting was also practiced by Zoroaster, the Jewish Prophets, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad.
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