Maya Mansour’s Baha’i Calendar Design

With the new year almost on the horizon, it’s an exciting time when friends share different styles and designs for Baha’i calendars. We recently heard from Noah and Sarah about what they’ve created and in previous years we heard from Roya Mottaheddeh and Tina and Tanisha of Fire & Gold.

I’m excited to share this interview with Maya Mansour about her bold graphic take on creating a Badi (or Baha’i) calendar:

Could you please tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Maya June Mansour and I’m originally from Nashville, Tennessee. I currently live in Los Angeles and work as a photographer and executive director of an arts non profit that I co-founded in 2020 called Black Image Center!

What inspired you to create this calendar?

I was always fascinated by the Baha’i rhythm of 19 day months, and was very attracted to the attribution of different virtues to each month and each day. I used to have this really incredible plug-in on my web browser that would tell me the combination of virtues for each day. I like to think the virtues set the tone for those 19 days and I would try to meditate on the name of each month. I think of it similarly to how some people relate to astrology and the way that different seasons bring different energies. 

Can you please tell us a little bit about its design and your thought process behind it?

A few years ago I was the recipient of the Google Image Equity Fellowship for my photography, and that experience made me reflect on the way I was printing my photos for exhibitions. I studied different methods of printing, varieties of paper, frame etc. I think some of that line of inquiry bled over to my interest in the Badi (Baha’i) calendar. I really wanted a physical calendar that centred Baha’i months, rather than a Gregorian calendar with Baha’i Holy Days, holidays, and feast days. I went to my local Baha’i bookstore and checked online, but I couldn’t find one so I decided to make one. 

It’s now a tradition that I make a calendar each year, and I’m excited to be able to offer these wall calendars to others who want something that truly centres the Badi calendar. My calendar has the Gregorian dates included for ease, but they are smaller and less prominent than the Badi dates. I had to create everything custom because there are no templates or drag-and-drop sites that include the Baha’i structure of 19 months. I’m offering two different colour options: multicolour and a monochrome brown calendar, which I’m really excited about! I read something a few years ago about how our world is losing it’s colour and I didn’t want to contribute to that! 

What is something you learned about the Badi calendar in the process of making this calendar?

I already knew the English translation for some of the months before this process, but now I have officially memorized all of the months in both English and Arabic! 

Thank you, Maya!

You can purchase Maya’s calendar directly from her website.

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Sonjel Vreeland

In her innermost heart, Sonjel is a stay-at-home parent and a bookworm with a maxed out library card but professionally she is a museologist with a background in English Literature. She currently lives on Prince Edward Island, an isle in the shape of a smile on the eastern Canadian coast. Sonjel is a writer who loves to listen to jazz when she's driving at night.