Ayyam-i-Ha on it's way!

[arthra]

Starting next month February 26th and ending February 29th Baha'is will be celebrating "Ayyam-i-Ha" The Days of "Ha"... this year four days... this is a festive time of celebration and gifts exchanges among Baha'is. I've been hoarding some book markers and other items I hope to share with friends in my community.

There are some informal traditional ways we've developed to celebrate the season. We have an Ayyam-i-Ha camel that shares gifts... The "camel" is actually a hand puppet.

Everyone has their own "traditions" I'm sure.

Ayyam-i-Ha has four or five days depending on whether or not it's a "leap year"... The Baha'i Calendar is a solar calendar usually beginning on Naw-Ruz or the vernal equinox and having nineteen months with nineteen days each month for 361 days.. Ayyam-i-Ha makes up the four or five days to complete the year.

I hope to be posting some more items about Ayyam-i-Ha as the month progresses...

 

[arthra]

For those interested I am posting a graphic of the Baha'i year...

 

[Devils' Advocate]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

 

[Ahanu]

For those interested I am posting a graphic of the Baha'i year...

I've never seen this graphic before. BTW, my eyes hurt after straining to read number three.

 

[arthra]

I've never seen this graphic before. BTW, my eyes hurt after straining to read number three.

Well I apologize for that...! That would be for month of Jamal جمال (Beauty) which begins around the first of May this year... Beauty can be quite blinding at times... (just kidding!) This might be a more clear image from Randall Dighton's site:

http://www.schoolmarmwood.org/Home.html

 

[arthra]

Huffington Post had an article about Ayyam-i-Ha that I thought I'd share here:

During Ayyam-i-Ha (translated as "Days of Joy" or "Days outside of time") Baha'is and friends perform acts of charity, give gifts to friends and family and attend social gatherings, before a period of fasting begins. Some think of it as parallel to Fat Tuesday before Lent. Baha'u'llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha'i Faith, about a century and a half ago, said of Ayyam-i-Ha:

"It behoveth the people of Baha, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name."

Read more at

Celebrating Ayyam-i-Ha: A Holiday You Haven't Heard Of

 

[Devils' Advocate]

Traditions are not what they used to be. And in some ways that is good; most though it is not so good. Of course we have all sorts of traditions in our lives and they have tended to become more and more secular. Sacred traditions are very important to our lives as individuals as well as being part of our communities. And by sacred I'm not talking religious alone, also spiritual, emotional, mindful and more. We are poorer as a species having cut out this portion of what makes us complete. Because I firmly believe it is one of the pieces of the human jigsaw that makes us more us.

 

[arthra]

There's a rather mystical interpretation of Ayyam-i-Ha that sometimes is less known and I wanted to share that today... A few brief paragraphs written here:

Ayyám-i-Há means the "Days of Há." "Há" is the Arabic letter corresponding to the English "H", and one of the three Arabic letters which make up the word "Bahá." Both Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb followed the Arabic tradition of assigning numerical values to letters, and of giving spiritual meanings to both. The numerical value of "Há" is 5, the sum of the numerical values of the letters in the "Báb," and the maximum number of intercalary days.

"Há" is also the first letter of an Arabic pronoun commonly used in Arabic religious writings to refer to God, or "the Divine Essence." "Há" by itself is used as a symbol of "the Essence of God," and was the subject of many an Arabic essay on its mysteries. In Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet of All Food the realm "beyond which there is no passing," or the realm of the Divine Essence is designated as "Háhut." In the Báb's interpretation of the letter "Há" (quoted by Bahá'u'lláh in the Kitáb-i-Iqán), the Báb speaks of martyrdom in the path of God and warns "even if all the kings of the earth were to be leagued together they would be powerless to take from me a single letter..."

Read more here:

http://bahai-invitation.com/feast/ha/ayyamiha05.html

 

[arthra]

The above example of Calligraphy was done by Randall Dighton.. a Baha'i Calligrapher ... this piece was complete thirty eight years ago on Ayyam-i-Ha.

Note that surrounding the nine pointed rosette of "Glory" and "Baha'u'llah" are the words from the Messiah by Handel a quote from Psalm 24.