Baha'i Fast begins sunrise March 1st!

[arthra]

Baha'is around the world will begin a Nineteen Day Fast beginning at sunrise tomorrow March 1st.

From the age of fifteen years to seventy years of age Baha'is abstain from solid food and liquids between sunrise and sunset for nineteen days.
Read more at

Fasting | What Bahá’ís Believe

There are certain conditions exempting a Baha'i from the Fast:

• Those who are ill.
• Those who are younger than 15 or older than 70.
• Those who are engaged in heavy labour.
• Women who are pregnant.
• Women who are nursing.
• Women who are menstruating (instead they must perform an ablution and recite the verse Glorified be God, the Lord of Splendour and Beauty 95 times a day).[1]

Exemptions are also given to those travelling during the fast. Exemptions are given when the travel is longer than 9 hours (or 2 hours if travelling by foot).[2] If the traveller breaks their journey for more than nineteen days, they are only exempt from fasting for the first three days. Also if they return home, they must begin fasting right away.[1]

Nineteen-Day Fast - Wikipedia

The last month of the Baha'i year is called " 'Ala " translated "Loftiness" has been dedicated to Fasting. The end of the Fast is the vernal equinox or the beginning of Spring. The year will be 178 of the Baha'i Era.

 

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This is, O my God, the first of the days on which Thou hast bidden Thy loved ones to observe the Fast. I ask of Thee by Thy Self and by him who hath fasted out of love for Thee and for Thy good-pleasure—and not out of self and desire, nor out of fear of Thy wrath—and by Thy most excellent names and august attributes, to purify Thy servants from the love of aught except Thee and to draw them nigh unto the Dawning-Place of the lights of Thy countenance and the Seat of the throne of Thy oneness. Illumine their hearts, O my God, with the light of Thy knowledge and brighten their faces with the rays of the Daystar that shineth from the horizon of Thy Will. Potent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. No God is there but Thee, the All-Glorious, Whose help is implored by all men.

Assist them, O my God, to render Thee victorious and to exalt Thy Word. Suffer them, then, to become as hands of Thy Cause amongst Thy servants, and make them to be revealers of Thy religion and Thy signs amongst mankind, in such wise that the whole world may be filled with Thy remembrance and praise and with Thy proofs and evidences. Thou art, verily, the All-Bounteous, the Most Exalted, the Powerful, the Mighty, and the Merciful.

Bahá’u’lláh

source

https://www.bahaiprayers.org/fast5.htm