“Going anywhere special for The Festival this year?”

“Usually we spend Paradise at home, but this year we’re going on a 12-day luxury cruise to Baghdad.”

“Really? Oh, I’m jealous. My husband just can’t miss the Ridvan golf junket in Las Vegas, so it’s going to be more reading and pomegranate tea by the pool for me…”

No, I haven’t heard many conversations like this at devotionals or reflection meetings, either! (And aren’t we lucky? Our Holy Days still focus on the holy part.) Still, it is the Most Great Festival, and who knows what it will be in futures that more or less distantly shine in our imaginations? As with the 19 Day Feast, so with Ridvan: we have only the barest notion of how to celebrate them. As with everything, we’re learning, and nothing stops our education more quickly than the thought that we know how to celebrate our festivals and nineteen-day spiritual gatherings. They will be “unimaginably glorious”, as the Guardian might have said, but for now we do the best we can. Continue Reading

Naw-Ruz has arrived, and the team at Baha’i Blog has come up with ten questions to test your knowledge of this Baha’i holy day.

Go ahead, take the Naw-Ruz quiz and see how you do!

If you don’t manage to get 100%, don’t fret. There’s always next year!

Feel free to familiarise yourselves with Naw-Ruz through these articles below – or see how you go without reading through them first.

1) A Time For Renewal

2) Is Naw-Ruz an Iranian Holiday or a Baha’i Holy Day?

3) Naw-Ruz: Spiritual Springtime

But most importantly, the team at Baha’i Blog would like to wish you all a very happy Naw-Ruz!

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Most nights, as I lie in bed drifting closer to sleep, my mind meanders through the events of the day, one random thought leading to another as my consciousness streams away toward stranger and stranger scenarios, until at last the rational succumbs completely to the emotional and symbolic.

But on some nights, I direct my thoughts, and I picture what it will be like during those first few moments in whatever that next realm is, in the afterlife.

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Photo courtesy: iainsimmons via Flickr

Because ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the eldest son of Bahá’u’lláh, was born on the same day that the Bab declared His mission to Mulla Husayn, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá forbade Bahá’ís from celebrating His birthday. But when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was travelling through the United States approximately one century ago, the American believers repeatedly expressed their desire to commemorate His life in some fashion, given the immense impact He had on the American Bahá’í community.

Although ‘Abdu’l-Bahá still instructed Bahá’ís that only the Declaration of the Bab should be celebrated on May 23^rd, He eventually allowed the Bahá’ís to choose a date that was furthest away from the date when Bahá’u’lláh passed away and to use that day to celebrate the establishment of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant with humanity. As Bahá’u’lláh passed away on May 29^th, 1892, the Bahá’í community chose November 26^th, the date six Gregorian months (182 days) away from the day of Bahá’u’lláh’s passing, as the Day of the Covenant.

But what exactly is Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, and what exactly is it that Baha’is are commemorating on this day? Continue Reading

Last week Baha’is around the world celebrated the Birth of Baha’u’llah, and some of the Baha’is in London celebrated this special event in a unique and creative way. The team at Media Makes Us attended the holy day celebration at Hackney and captured a taste of some of the unique artistic installations which were on show on the night!

The celebration took place in an East London artists’ studio, which was transformed into an exhibition space that aimed to tell the story of the life of Baha’u'llah by providing a multi-sensory experience for viewers. Participants were invited to discover the history and Writings of the Faith for themselves through touch, smell and taste – by becoming part of the exhibition and walking around to discover clues and to immerse themselves in the rich imagery and historical details of the Faith and its holy Scriptures.

What a fascinating way to commemorate a Holy Day. A big thanks to the folks at Media Makes Us for allowing Baha’i Blog readers from all over the world to witness this amazing celebration!

By most measures, November 1817 was a decidedly ho-hum month in world history. On November 5, the Third Anglo-Maratha War broke out between the British and Indians at the Battle of Khadki. On November 20, the first Seminole War began in the American state of Florida. Historical almanacs show the parade of 19th century thinkers and doers marching on and a subtle passing from a world of crushing conventionality (Jane Austen died that year) to a world of intense questioning and social and philosophical mischief (Henry David Thoreau and Frederick Douglass were born that year).

But on November 12, something happened that in time will make all the wars, rises and falls of empires, and even sweeping social and philosophical movements pale by comparison. On that Wednesday, a baby was born in Tehran, a baby Who would grow up to upset the equilibrium of the whole world, indeed whose life would mark the culmination of an age 6,000 years long — our entire known history — and launch us into a turbulent modernity and then into the long-promised but elusive Kingdom of God on Earth. Continue Reading